I admit it: I'm a geek. And a selfish one, at that. Through a ridiculous number of product tests and keeping current with innovation through technology blogs, I
've come to expect a lot from my online experience. I now divide the web into two camps: the good guys (open-source, user-oriented and customizable with low-key advertising) and the bad guys (propietary, self-serving with busy interfaces and ad clutter).
Xanga has become one of the "bad guys". And I'm sorry, it just feels hypocritical to continue to support them.
Don't get me wrong--
there are a lot of things I still love about Xanga. Things like:
- This was my first introduction to blogging.
- Most of my friends have Xanga sites.
- The design still maximizes the space for actual content, which I think is great.
But really, all of this adds up to little more than sentimental value.
I want so much more. I always have. In fact, I actually paid for a "Lifetime" account over a year ago. At the time, it set me back $100. For
Xanga. This gave me more flexibility, but I've come to realize that even this is not enough. In fact,
every benefit I have enjoyed from being a Paid Premium member is available for free from almost every other blogging platform out there--and most of the others have add-on benefits that Xanga can only dream about.
So I'm done with Xanga. It's over. And here's why [Note: This is not just a wishlist. All of these features below ARE AVAILABLE from other blogging services. For Free.]:
10. No Cross-Posting Support: Don't force me into your box
I have several blogs. Sometimes I just want to have the same content appear on all of them (this post, however, only appears here). Xanga won't let me. I understand, this is Good for Xanga. The more I use the site, the harder it is to leave if I find something better. Unfortunately, what is Good for Xanga is not Good for Users.
Just one example of Xanga as the "bad guy". The "good guys" let you take your content wherever you want it.
9. No "Multiple Blog" Support: Different content deserves a different design
Several of my Xanga friends have "multiple blog syndrome". They want to filter their content in a way that makes logical sense, so its not all haphazardly situated on one blog. For example, they might want one blog for their photos, one for their posts about a certain project or semester, one for their posts about their home life, and even another one for their artistic endeavors. Some even keep a personal blog as a diary. While Xanga does allow "Protected" and "Private" posting that handles some of these, it doesn't solve the problem of needing a different "look" for each blog. So what do you do?
Sign up for 4 Xanga blogs, of course!
This is a HASSLE, I can tell you from personal experience. Log in, log out, change preferences, post here, post there, juggle juggle juggle. It's tough. Too bad Xanga doesn't support one login for multiple blogs, like the good guys do.
8. Email Posting Support Sucks: I just want to make posting simpler
Xanga Premium does come with "Email Posting" support, which I love. I can post to my blogs from the comfort of my inbox, without having to wait for the incredibly slow Xanga Post Editor to load in my browser. Not to mention an even slower "logging in to Xanga" process. I have a lot of things to do, waiting is not one I enjoy.
Unfortunately, even the Paid accounts don't get good support for the email posting. Half the time they don't work, and when they do, they don't strip out annoying HTML tags that create headaches for those of you that subscribe to this blog (remember how I "broke Xanga?" Twice?).
The good guys do this stuff well.
7. Privacy Controls Are Too Simplistic: And the rest is too complicated
I'm a pretty open guy, by nature. I don't mind if you know my secrets. But sometimes I want to say something that some might not understand, or that could be taken the wrong way. Sure, I could set my post to "Protected"...but what if there are some on my "Protected" list that I'm not comfortable sharing that one particular post with? Or what if I want to post for just one person, as a sort of surprise? Well, I can't.
And have you seen the recent "privacy controls" Xanga has released? If you want to block someone that you think is a stalker, you have to perform several steps in succession (Xanga Lock, Footprints Lock, Friends Lock, and Block User) to do so. And it doesn't end up blocking just that person from seeing your site. It effectively blocks the entire world. If I want to hide from the world, at least make the process simpler.
NOTE: Xanga probably enacted these controls
in reaction to the million-dollar lawsuit they lost over allowing kids under the age of thirteen to create Xanga accounts.
Multiply.com has a particularly excellent set of privacy controls that actually make sense.
6. Difficult Customization Controls: Give me drag-and-drop any day [UPDATE: Xanga changed this recently. The new "Xanga Themes" editor is very cool, albeit VERY sluggish, even on a fast connection.]
I like things SIMPLE. I'll go out of my way to find an easier way to do it the next time around. That's why I subscribe to the Lifehacker RSS feed. Xanga's "Look and Feel" is OK for things like changing your background or your tagline...But what if you want to move modules around? Or add cool widgets? Or change your layout significantly?
Well, first, you have to pay for Premium, and it really doesn't make it easy. It just makes it possible. Other sites allow drag-and-drop reorganization of modules, as well as full template control and widget add-on support.
Blogger Beta and
Multiply.com [two of the good guys] support practically anything you can imagine.
5. Closed Comment System: Unfortunate for the random friend that just wants to say 'hey' [UPDATE: Xanga changed this recently. Excellent work, Xanga!]
You ever notice how many people DON'T post on their Xanga sites? They just create them so they can make a simple comment on someone else's site.
This is Good for Xanga. It means more people sign up for their service, which means they look better to their advertisers, who then pay them more money. It is also stupid. Users (that's you) should be allowed to allow "external" comments on posts for friends that frequent other blogging sites besides Xanga. You did know there were other blogging sites, right? And they let Xangans comments without signing up? Why, oh why, must Xanga be a bad guy?
4. Search Sucks: I want to be able to find my friends
My wife says that the difficulty trying to find people on the Xanga search engine is "part of the fun" of Xanga. It makes finding people a surprise.
Well, if you agree, skip this one. I hate it. I like my friends, and if they happen to sign up for a blog, I'd like to be able to find them and support their blogging efforts. Too bad Xanga doesn't know how to set up a search engine.
3. Read-Only Xanga Subs: Another "feature" that keeps me boxed in
For those of you that are not familiar with what "RSS" is, I'll explain. You know your "Xanga Subscriptions" page, where you can read all the recent updates your friends have made? That's called an RSS Feed Reader. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (sounds kinda cheesy, doesn't it?), and it's basically like an Email "Inbox for the Web" (as Google puts it).
Xanga uses a closed RSS system. That means that you can only add other Xangans to your feed. But what if you like the Lifehacker blog, or Design 2.0, or Cute Overload, or the official Google Blog? Too bad. You'll have to just visit the sites outside of Xanga.
There are better solutions. Google (which provides Blogger) allows you to read your Xanga subscriptions AND all of your other favorite blogs from one interface, called
Google Reader. Definitely worth the time, and definitely a good guy.
You know that silly banner ad that sits at the top of all your pages? You know those even sillier ads that sometimes sit next to comments? This is another example of something that's Good for Xanga. They make money off of all that. Do you?
Other blogging sites DO NOT put ads on your site unless you want them to. Not only that, but if you choose to allow ads on your site, they will pay you some of the money they make from the process. It's called "revenue sharing," and if you think about it, it's only fair. YOU are providing the content that earns Xanga money. Why shouldn't they share the wealth?
1. Just a MySpace Wannabe: All the recent "new features" are knockoffs
Xanga used to be cool. It was different from the other social networking sites, like MySpace. The layout was cleaner, emphasized content (especially writing) rather than profiles, and it loaded a heck of a lot faster than the others.
Recently Xanga decided it could be like everybody else. So they added separate Photo, Video, and Audio sections of your blog. They "spruced up" the dashboard (which effectively tripled my login time). They added a bazillion features like tagging, ratings, Boosts, more advanced rich text editing, Footprints, not to mention their horrendous tangle of privacy controls.
I don't have a problem with those things in themselves, but I think they're counter-productive. By trying to be like everybody else, Xanga has set itself up for a more direct comparison to the other sites. And the other sites are just plain better.
MySpace is one of the things I hate most about the internet. But if you compare its capabilities with that of the "new" Xanga,
MySpace wins hands down. Except for maybe privacy. In that arena they both lose to
Facebook and
Multiply.
Conclusion: Consider other options Many of you probably don't care about the things I just mentioned. At least not yet. My guess would be that you don't care because you are either (a) resistant to change, or (b) just haven't experienced how much better it can be.
That's fine. I won't throw a fit if you disagree with me or just don't care. I just wanted to let you know why I'm leaving, and what I'm leaving for. Don't worry, I'll still be reading your blog (from
Google Reader), and I'll probably comment from time to time (using this account, because Xanga forces me to). But if you do decide to give something else a try, I'll be happy to help you set it up. I've been researching this for quite a while (you can ask Amy), and I'm always happy to let you reap the benefits of my research.
But as we part ways, let me encourage you to at least consider some alternatives to the Xanga experience. I'm even going to recommend some great blogs that might pique your interest. And, of course, I'm leaving a list of the places you can find me in the future, if you so desire.
Where I'll Be:
You can, of course, subscribe to all of my blogs (and all your Xanga blogs, too) at
Google Reader.
Click the link to view these items:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/16423353477566768633/label/nic Or, if you use a feed reader, you can subscribe to their feed by copying and pasting this feed URL into your feed reader:
http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/16423353477566768633/label/nicExcellent Blogging Sites [premium usability for free!]:
- Multiply: Great for bloggers with lots of photos and other media to post. Also great if you like detailed privacy settings.
- Vox: Another great one for multimedia bloggers. Very social site. And beautiful.
- Blogger (beta): Excellent for the "classic Xanga" user who wants a little more control and no ads. Writing content is the focus, though other media can be integrated.
- WordPress: Very professional blogging site. Fast setup. Very clean designs.
There are others, of course, but these are my current favs.
Good Example Blogs [see all that you can be!]:
See you in the Blogosphere!
Lifetime
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