So, in light of my GRE tomorrow (and the likely mediocre score I will achieve) and my fast approaching leave from Xanga, let's celebrate with one of those User Questionnaire type things (because I always liked the idea of them and really haven't ever done anything like them here and I'm feeling indulgent).
SO
Ask me anything; nothing is off topic and I shall respond entirely sincerely and truthfully. Yaayyyyy.
We went to the Pride Festival in Chicago today. I would have preferred to go to the parade but my sister's going down to Northwestern for a summer program on the same day so we couldn't. And she's never been to a pride event so, of course, I wasn't going to be having any of that (for the record, she wanted to go; I was just more than happy to aid).
On the way back, I happened to see Ariel in Union Station; I'll come back to this.
About a week or so ago, I happened to run into Joan. There's a principle difference between Joan and Ariel in relation to me, simply by virtue of history. I met Ariel when she was doing Operation Obvious (a campaign to recognize the LGBT movement as the next civil rights movement of our time). She eventually joined The Wit (the high school's literary magazine), which I was also on. I believe she was two years under me and joined The Wit her Sophomore year so, clearly, our interaction was not extensive. That being said, she's a fantastically nice person and someone who I have to admire for the conviction of her beliefs and willingness to pursue them.
Joan, on the other hand, I met through Shane. I haven't really kept in touch with Shane but I took to Joan. I suppose that it always struck me as odd because she was a Freshman during my Senior and I didn't get to know many (a year simply isn't much time, etc.). Perhaps in part because her friends and my friends tended to overlap, I spent a decent amount of time hanging out with Joan my last year of high school and I'm really rather fond of her.
I ran into Joan at a restaurant the family and I were going to. I sort of was walking past – thinking to myself, "Does that girl look familiar?" – and did a double take when I realized it was Joan. She was with someone and I was with the family so there really wasn't much room for catching up. I really should send her a message sometime, in spite of my recent reclusiveness. I know it's not very likely to blossom into a lifelong best friendship or even go far beyond that message (largely my own invertedness and social awkwardness to blame) but I'll probably do it because it's important to let people know they're valued. Even if my close ring of five or less best friends is my constant in life, that certainly doesn't mean those friends I'm less close with aren't very important to me.
In any case, I mention this because, when I saw Ariel today, I was struck by this very particular feeling/thought. The reason I bring up Joan (other than to mention that I was really glad to see her; it's been an…odd year) is that I didn't have the same reaction. I was glad to see Joan but seeing Ariel was markedly different.
While I would certainly like to know Ariel better, I think a good description of us would be acquaintances (which is not something trivial to me, as I've covered before here). But I would certainly describe Joan and I as friends; so, if that was what triggered the reaction, it would have occurred with seeing Joan as well.
While we were at the pride festival, I remember just feeling…comfortable. Safe. It was particularly interesting since my dad was there but maybe it just added to that feeling that I was entering a different community. Memories of the QSU kept coming to me. A girl that "looked like" a lesbian handed me a flyer on becoming a vegan. The guys behind the bar were down to just their underwear. a drag performer was performing on one of the stages. And I'm not trying to say that these groups are in some way fixed (there were women down to just their underwear there as well) but there was familiarity there. And, for whatever flaws I've found or find in my Queer community (whether they're correct or not), I felt safe. Certainly welcomed but also safe. In some ways, it was better than the parade. Sure, there were commercial vendors here as well but, outside of the food, there were causes that directly related to our community here and people who cared about them (and about us) behind those booths and fighting for them.
While I don't quite understand it in total, it would seem that community is actually really important to me, verging on dependent to my well being. While, particularly in relation to discussing and making sense of mental illness, I've become more and more of a fan of the idea of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as time goes on, my own social interactions seem to follow a similar trend. When I'm not doing well, I rescind into myself, hard. Only those who are closest to me do I let in, at times only keeping in touch sparing (sometimes cutting off even them). When I feel more comfortable, I'm far more willing to let others in. But the thing is, a true community doesn't just include your closest friends. It includes your friends and it includes your acquaintances.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm always very happy to see those acquaintances very much. And it's not just that I like people: people in general take importance for me and even those who I don't spend much time with are important to me. Ariel is someone I think highly of and there will always be the fact that I met her through The Wit, a group that was very important to me. I'm not going to have the same reaction seeing her as I might if I saw Laila unexpectedly but she's important to me. I feel like I'm repeating myself but I like to be thorough.
My point I am slowly hinting towards is that my reaction, upon seeing Ariel, was a sense of community. I guess I used to wonder, back in high school when – wading through the masses of 5,000 students – we would often stop a million times in the halls saying hello enough times that we barely got through a conversation with the person we were walking with, why we did it. I mean, take Sarah Greenawalt. I always liked Sarah (there was a warmness she always greeted me with which I always appreciated) but our relationship didn't extend beyond a similar friendbase (or at least history) and seeing her in the hall from time to time. I don't see Sarah anymore and am likely not to (wouldn't mind seeing her again one near bit but it's not very likely). So…what was the point (alright, this is a hilarious question because I never think meeting or getting to know any person is ever a waste of time by any measurement; the question doesn't even deserve a response, in my mind; not to mention, like I said, I rather like Sarah as a person)?
I guess it goes without saying that I never really look at anyone I just meet with the expectation of remaining at the level with them forever. With all people, I sincerely want to get to know them better and become best buds with them. But, obviously, that level of friendship doesn't exist with all people at all times. So, while Laila is certainly of more importance to me (I severely don't like the phrasing of that but I'm struggling for a better one) than Sarah, Sarah isn't unimportant (just as I expect I'm "less important" to Sarah in comparison to others Sarah is closer with and has a more extensive history with). Does that make sense?
So, when I saw Ariel today, there was more than just a "Oh! Ariel; I haven't seen her in ages. I should most definitely say hello." moment (this plan went horridly wrong, in the comedic way my life is good for; I spent most of the time in Union station trying to figure out if it was her without being creepy; funnily enough, this usually works just in time in spite of my sluggishness and avoids approaching people that actually just happen to look exceedingly similar to the people I know. This time, though, our train arrived before I said hello. In spite of this, we wound up in the same car anyway. After more trying to make sure it was her – and trying not to look creepy –, I left a comment on her Facebook saying I thought I saw her and wanted to see how she's been. She asks where I am; by the time I respond, she's fallen asleep. And she eventually gets off at her spot. Probably the most successful two hours of my life and best "catching up" scenario I've had).
There was this distinct jolt of community, if that makes sense. And it wasn't just that she was probably in Chicago for the pride festival as well. It was that sense of my home state, the state of my community in high school, where I can still run into a large gamut of people I know. I mean, I didn't get to know Ariel that well in high school (a shame, as I've said, but so ist das leben). And yet, in that same way I'd pass by Sarah in the hall and stop and ask how she's been and what she's up to despite our otherwise limited interaction, I was going (to attempt and fail) to stop by and say hello to Ariel. And it was like, for the first time in a long while, I had a full sense of a community again. Not raggedly thrusting all my weight onto my close friends to pull me forward or silently licking my wounds in the dark and just biding recovery: walking through those halls and having the energy to pay attention to those people who don't loom as large in my life but who are, none the less, very important to me.
I told Antal once that I had realized that I don't seem to fully ingratiate to a community until about four to five years (I think high school was a sped up process, in part thanks to the phenomenal class of '09). I'm not entirely sure what it is; maybe it's just that sense of safety in knowing that I'm amongst people I like and who like me; maybe it's that same connectedness and support I felt walking amongst the pride festival, knowing that – to some degree – we all supported each other and cared about each other even though we didn't really know each other (this actually seems to imply a larger level of separation between myself and Sarah and Ariel than I want to imply but hopefully it gives an idea of what I'm getting at). I don't know.
This isn't a thread that I've made full sense of yet. I don't know what the relevance is of community to me (though I'm fairly certain it has relation to my feelings about people and humanity and my own bizarre need for physicality in spite of my driving tendency to isolate myself; things I shall have to cover at a later time). There's a lot here that I'm not entirely certain about but I've been chewing these ideas and concept for a while. They're coming to slow solidity but they're odd because I'm not used to discovering such fundamental aspects of myself this far into my life.
On a last note (to be honest, I'm not sure if it's related), I've just never understood not wanting to get to know people. It's such a universalizing expectation (so I don't entirely like holding it) but, on a really fundamental level, I don't understand that concept. How do you meet people and not want to know more? How do you not consider it a rare privilege for someone to share parts of their life with you? My immediate reaction is to ask that they continue. My instinct is to throw aside whatever it is I had (something I haven't been entirely the best at doing recently, as my post regarding Amanda noted) to pay attention. How is it not to care and worry and put first? That isn't explaining it right. I can understand how one might not do those last listed three things on accident; what I mean is, how can your reaction to a person not be to want to know more and not be elation at a return of that interest? I suppose that sounds weird until you consider that the whole of our culture pretty much revolves around human connection. Even if it's with just one person, we want human connection. I just want to meet and celebrate every person I meet for every bit of uniqueness they possess. And I don't know why, exactly. I mean, I can come up with a logical defense, obviously. I think I started with that and this emotional reaction has gotten stronger over the years (I think that's largely because it took time to have deeper human connections that, without, I couldn't have ever realized were possible and, thus, have particular emotional responses). But I've always had a strong love for people that I sort of just assumed everyone shared. Not to say people can't be shit. I've known quite a few. But knowing some of the amazing, spell-binding people that I have (and the passion they have and the aspirations and potential abilities and care that they can command) – how do people not see the astounding potential in everyone they meet?
It's not quite related but it's a thought I've been having so I'm tacking it on the end here. While actually trying to orchestrate such a thing would probably never run smoothly (and potentially be astoundingly awkward for all involved), I'd like to see what might happen if all my exes were to meet and get to know each other for a day (that's a nicer way of saying it instead of "plop them all into a room and tell them, "Interact!") – and not just the ones I liked (though I actually would like all the exes that I truly consider to be amazing people to meet each other simply because such phenomenal people deserve to meet other such phenomenal and life-changing people like themselves).
No, I'd like all of them to meet each other because I'd be interested to know what I was to them. Was I sweet? Was I mean? Was I too sarcastic? But, more importantly, was I supportive? Was I helpful? Or was I destructive? Careless? Flippant? Cruel? Did I give them memories worth keeping, in spite of whatever fallout may've occured? Did I give them anything?
Almost a month until I have to leave here.
It seemed dramatic to me but one of the first feelings I had when I started to consider having to move to another blogging site was exile. Many of us will do the same, feeding the diaspora.
If I'm to be fully honest, I didn't like everyone here. God knows, I have my own few rants in my archive about what tended to be featured on the home page and the ish sites. And yet…I dunno, it was home? There was something comforting about seeing familiar faces or your everyday spam comment in this little community. Maybe it was the order I often find myself lacking or just a sense of home that's so difficult for me to find.
So I dunno, necessarily, what good it will do but I've whipped the below images up. I'll be posting one on whichever blog I go to. That way, at least, we can find each other out there in that massive Internet.
But also it'll be a sign of what Xanga meant and that we still believe in it. Just like a people's feelings towards their country, I imagine that will, ultimately, be different for each person. But it seemed united enough that we all rallied here, that most of us found that no where else seemed to really fill the need quite as Xanga did. Whatever we are, we found it important.
The images are below. Use them or altar them to your heart's content.
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*The Sister and I sitting on a bed; her hair is rather curly and somewhat frizzy*
Sister: My – God, can you see how crazy and cool my hair is‽ *whips it around her head*
*Suddenly, she stands up and bends over so that the top of her scalp is touching the top of mine*
Sister: Can you feel it? Are you experiencing how awesome it is to have my hair?
These infernal emotions screw everything touched by them up. You would think a benevolent God would possess at least one means of living that didn't include what is vomiting feels. Or perhaps, in His infinite wisdom, it's found to be wise to relinquish entirely the notion of able control? Is it possible, maybe, I might introduce myself, once, unencumbered by practicing knots with my tongue like a sport? I would rather articulate audibly, thank you –
Enough! These incessant internal soliloquies come to their end: I will not spend the whole of my life merely prattling on in my head in confinement by simple petitions that form in me ceaseless unrest from prolonged indiscretions in which it is clear that I can't be provoked to the point where I don't find offence at expecting to shed all my thoughts
"Really, Chrissy, this time can be better spent than in silence." Chrissy doubted that there was any realization to it but the pen was beginning to tap against the notepad in time with the clock on the wall. A sigh. "I can't help you if you have no interest in helping me. You can leave unless you're going to actually add anything to this discussion." There was a second's pause before Chrissy got up from the chair, muttering,
"'Fraid I won't."
Archiving Your Xanga
I was going to download an archive to see how it compared to the last time I archived this site in 2009 (unless I'm misremembering, they now have a way to archive your photos, pulses, etc.) but the page it directs me to doesn't exist. You continue to fill me with confidence, Xanga Team.
In any case, the largest reason I wanted to see how it looked this time was that, last time, it was a series of htm files. Any form of layout that you had or pulses or images (I *imagine* that images hosted on other sites would appear, with an internet connection) aren't included in this. Also, having been labeling my posts with tags for the past year (I think I made it to 2009 but I haven't made it all the way through yet), there's no way to tap into that very valuable organization method (particular given that the search function will most likely be disabled).
So I started looking into alternative ways to archive my site.
Yet again reaffirming my love for the terminal (as well as wget), I figured out a way to do it (using wget, obviously).
If you have Linux, a Mac, BSD, or Solaris, simply open up a terminal and put in wget with the flags m, k, K, E, and p with the URI of your Xanga (so, in my case, I put in wget -m -k -K -E -p thirst2.xanga.com). Then press enter.
It will create a new folder titled after your site and download everything there. The m flag "turns on recursion and time-stamping, sets infinite recursion depth[,] and keeps FTP directory listings". Basically, it makes certain wget downloads more than just the first page.
The k flag "convert[s] the links in the document to make them suitable for local viewing". Basically, it makes certain that, if you click on a link, it'll direct you to file:///home/[your home folder's name]/[your xanga's name].xanga.com/etc instead of to http://[your xanga's name].xanga.com/etc.
The K flag will back up the original files, unaltered, with the file extension .orig (that'll basically be useless if Xanga is taken down but I figure it doesn't hurt to have the originals just in case; that or it's my packrattiness talking).
The E flag will, "[i]f a file of type application/xhtml+xml or text/html is downloaded and the URL does not end with the [file extension .html], […] cause the suffix .html to be appended to the local filename".
Lastly, the p flag will get images and other embedded objects (I still haven't seen how well that works yet; thus far, wget hasn't downloaded any images and I very much want the images I uploaded to this site. Towards the end here, I started uploading them to tinypic.com before using them in a post but I certainly didn't in the beginning).
Edit: It's not downloading the images because they're often on URIs of http://x01.xanga.com/etc. Since it's not thirst2.xanga.com, wget thinks it's not supposed to get them. I haven't tested it yet but adding the H flag should fix that. It enables "spanning across hosts when doing recursive retrieving". Of course, this also means that any pictures I uploaded to tinypic.com and linked to will also be downloaded (even though tinypic isn't going down anytime soon…), and maybe YouTube stuff as well… Though it does mean that any videos I uploaded will be downloaded, so that's not bad. I'll let you know if it works once I get to try it.
Edit: Alright, the H flag, even with the D flag marked with domains that it's supposed to restrict itself to, likes to downloaded anything linked to your site and tries to download all of Xanga. Regardless, this shouldn't even be a problem since the p flag is supposed to download all images, etc. including those that might be hosted off the site. Thus, x01.xanga.com/whatever/whatever.jpg should be downloaded, seeing as it's pretty directly embedded. Sad; it's such a useful and powerful tool otherwise. So, the Debian software repositories had WebHTTrack and I downloaded that. It's in the process of downloading my site but it seems to be doing a good job. It's a bit overkill in that it's downloading everything linked to tinypic and also a PDF version of the New York Times article I linked to but it is not, notably, downloading other people's Xangas. It's just being thorough, which I suppose is nice in the event that tinypic goes down or something. I should have an archive that works entirely locally and thoroughly without an internet connection (which is more than I was expecting before). Go to http://www.httrack.com/ in order to get the program. They have a version for Windows, Mac, Linux, and BSD. The Mac one looks a little bit more complicated but the Linux and Windows versions are nicely straightforward.
Beyond the possible image hiccup, wget didn't seem to download the css stylesheets the first time I tried it (though, admittedly, it was without the p flag since I just wanted to run a test). If it doesn't, it's very simple to do. Just open the first index.html file you get (the one that corresponds to your home page) in any text editor, search for "css" and download the links that it finds (mine had two). With those inside the first folder, everything should render nicely.
Even if the images don't get downloaded, this means a site of local files that should look pretty much exactly as you had it (since background images had to be hosted on outside sites, I believe) and can be navigated just as you used to navigate your site, including pulses and (with any luck) images.
The one drawback is that you'll probably have to set all private and protected posts to public given that you have to be signed in to see those (and you obviously can't be signed in if the Xanga site is down or moved to Xanga 2.0). I'll let you know when this first archive finishes.
If you have a Windows, the above should work fine if you have CygWin installed (though, if you have CygWin installed, you would have known you could do the above the second I said "terminal" and not had to read until here). If you none of what I've mentioned has applied to you yet, then I'm less certain what will work (given I won't have tried it).
Apparently WebZip and HTTrack are programs that could get the job done but I've never used them.
Also, I probably needn't tell anyone but archiving your site will take some times, particularly if you've been here a while. This process will probably take longer than the usual archive way that Xanga provides because it's not just downloading your individual entries but also every page that might be displayed if I clicked the "Older" and "Newer" button at the bottom your main page as well as all the images on the site, etc.
Also, I'm going to tag some of you wonderful people who I used to follow on here but have since left Xanga. I know some have used this site as a journal of less pleasant times (and perhaps you wanted to forget that) or stopped blogging as much as five years ago and find the old information useless but I'm doing it in the case you wanted to save this stuff and probably won't be made aware that Xanga is closing, otherwise.
@NatalieTheSaint, @escapist767/@Alyxandri, @LiquidityOfSelf, @FlyAway180, @Opaque_Life, @kassandrag, @opticalnoise, @peloha, @leviculus, @The_Ferocious_Lam, @stephanieoakley01, @iknowyou12345, @xNicolax, @mayjun, @back_2_basic_love, @cermetk, @LaRuralMetroFemme, @SkygreenII, @erinjessicaxox, @avariellefaye, @stephysturt824, @desertraindrop86
I guess I knew it'd come, someday. I just never could figure out what I'd do once the day came.
I'll start with what we're all thinking: creating a social network you have to pay for will never fly. It's really a reasonable price – $48 for a full year comes to $3.75 per month. While I normally avoid paying anything ever – if I can help it – (particularly because a bunch of services for the low price of only $3 per month eventually build up if you don't keep track – and, at so low a price, you're likely tempted not to be too concerned), I might actually make an exception for Xanga. But I couldn't right now. I have far greater requirements that couldn't allow any justification at this moment.
But even if I was willing to put down $48 per year, many others wouldn't (particular when social sites like Tumblr are right around the corner for free).
What would be, in my mind, the wiser decision is to revamp the way Xanga works in order to attract more people (something that Xanga, really, ought to've done a long damn time ago).
Here's what I (and, I think, a lot of other Xangans) like about Xanga: the community. And, as I've a million times before on here (and, I've been reminded this year, there are still some of us here…), it was a safe place for those who maybe wanted to talk about aspects of our lives that maybe we didn't feel comfortable about elsewhere.
I don't think those two things are separate. I could talk about depression and SI and ED and other mental disorders and histories of abuse and prejudice at Tumblr or at LiveJournal just as easily (and people have). The difference with Xanga, however, was that the community gave us a place to find others like ourselves (or exercise our desire to yell at, and complain about, others).
The problem is this very unique aspect of Xanga (its community) is not greatly highlighted. Take away the community and what do you got? Any regular run of the mill blog or Blogspot/Blogger.
The strength of Blogger, however, is that it can be used for other things. I used a Blogspot URL for the News section of the Mucho Macho Moocow Military Marching Band's site. While I could probably contort a xanga site into a similar purpose, Blogger is simply set up for strict blogging. It makes complete sense and (the greatest reason I did it) provides a very straightforward layout for those who may not be as HTML or CSS savvy to update the site. And the site itself only provides the ability to provide comments, thus directing all comments to be about the content.
Xanga, on the other hand, is a blogging site set up to facilitate communication between users who blog. The eProps, the Minis you can give people – it's all directed towards you interacting with the user rather than interacting with the content of the site. Blogger, on the other hand, has been able to act seemlessly as an extention of sites or as a site itself or as blogging if you don't mind others not interacting with you or if you don't mind the interaction tending more towards the contact than necessarily the blogger.
I once commented to one of my cousins that Facebook was, really, this unique player in the social network pools because you weren't behind a username. Using Xanga as my source of empirical knowledge, I found that I could never imagine getting rid of my Facebook because so many memories were stuck there. This was the space I traded band jokes back and forth with Kristi, where I had note upon note detailing info. about myself and, in turn, learning about my friends, where I had picture upon picture of memories and events, etc. On the other hand, what happens if I junk my Xanga? I can archive it, if I want to keep the memories, and I'm no worse for wear. Ever had a friend drop off of Facebook? Old jokes and comments suddenly are half completely, pictures you may have been tagged in that were important to you are gone.
While there is the hole in my hypothesis of the fact that I've seen an amount of people drop out of Facebook (though some do come back) that has surprised me, I think the reason Facebook has been able to repeatedly change the layout so that it gets worse and worse and do all sorts of other things that have raised outcry from its userbase is because no one is really going to leave Facebook. At the end of the day, it's where not only their photos and videos and notes are – it's where their group of friends in real life are who've commented and liked their stuff. Even if you could archive all the info., you lose that communal interaction that is just as much a part of the user experience. Further, – because it's your actual face, name, etc. there – it's an extension of your life. I go onto to Facebook to get in touch with people or ask them questions or plan things. It's your contact book, E-mail, and IM with practical application – no usernames to separate us from reality.
MySpace was purely fueled by social value. It was one of the first social network sites to hit the scene; everyone had one. Ever had a MySpace? First time I actually bothered to get one, I couldn't figure out why people were raving about them. I literally couldn't do anything with it other than change my mood and upload pictures. Could anyone really comment on said pictures? Not really; the site wasn't directed towards that. There was a blogging function but, like the pictures, it was tucked off to the side and had limited capability. The real interaction was on the main page (as with all sites) and what was presented there was a profile picture, your status, and quotes and shit you uploaded that others couldn't really interact with. Was anyone really surprised that MySpace became a major stalk-fest? It was set up that way and directed to that outcome. That's why, once the appeal and social status of it wore off, it tanked and no attempt to revive it has worked.
And then we've got Tumblr. Tumblr is this little cluster-fuck of poor organization when it comes to the long-form. This is the largest reason I have never, in spite of the allure, jumped ship from Xanga to Tumblr. Designed as a quick way to share images and short bits of information, there's no real way to form the same type of community interactions and connections that Xanga has and nurtures. Want to comment? Okay, let's just toss it into the mass of text listing who liked the post. Want to do a post longer than three sentences? HA. Let's see if you can make sense of the three or more columns going on on this person's site. Oh, and some of them trail off after the fifth sentence and you have to click through to see the rest. So useful for the passerby or anyone reading a tumblr outside of being logged into Tumblr.
Which isn't to say that last bit can't be arranged. I believe you could set up a tumblr is some reasonable fashion for regular blogging. But the thing is that Tumblr is set up, from default, to be a site aimed at hosting media and being able to offer quick little comments about said images and videos. Which is somewhat silly, really, since posting a single image could easily help determine the length of posts; the real determiner of whether it's a media blog or not ought to be in how you organize how the posts are shown (one column or 1 million columns, etc.); of course, this doesn't address Tumblr's joy at presenting feedback in an unreadable manner that makes the depressed kid almost find the last needed reason to finally hang himself.
But that's also been Tumblr's greatest strength. I want to avoid making generalities about things I'm not entirely certain about (and I've done that somewhat enough already with some of these sites I've only used sparingly) but it was really the perfect solution to a generation that was getting used to faster and faster means of doing things. Tumblr has amazing user experience.
You see, Tumblr is near unreadable to those who may be on the outside. Want to follow a discussion? Good fucking luck. However, from the signed-in Tumblr user's perspective, that's easy. It's all on your dash. On your dash, you can easily keep track of new posts from the tumblrs you follow, easily see who commented towards you or shared something you posted, etc.
Want to post an image? A quote? A post? Easy. It's right in your home page with a beautiful graphical button right there waiting for you. Quick, fast, painless, and easy. Did I mention fast? From the user perspective, Tumblr is this quick and beautiful social network site that allows you to post stuff easily and allows you interact with people. You can follow your favorite tumblrs (and, I imagine, message them) and get to know these people. Ever seen those posts about those crazy tumblrs who stay up until 3 A. M.? Tumblr's been pretty great about having a very opening and welcoming Queer community. Feminism thrives. Hell, a good deal of the images I've posted here and a few of the posts regarding Queerness and Feminism have come from or been inspired by users on Tumblr. Community! You could define a Tumblr community.
But let's say that you want to have an actual conversation outside of messaging a user? Sure, you can respond to how a user acts by commenting them or unsubbing them. But the second you comment to a person, you fork the conversation. Tumblr treats comments by pasting it on your site (with a quote of what you're responding to) and plopping a little note at the bottom of the post you respond to. So say I'm discussing something with someone. Someone else responds to my fifth comment to Person A. Does Person A see what Person B said to me? Can they easily track it? Nope; you've got a brand new conversation, is what you have. Tracking conversations on Trumblr is hyperlink jumping "fun".
Tumblr responses drives a user to your tumblr. Anyone looking at Tumblr is fine so long as you're signed in (and, even then, it's really all about who you've decided to keep track of and follow and who responds to you). Tumblr usage literally revolves around you.
Xanga, on the other hand, regulates non-message conversations to one page – the page of the subject you are discussing. That is the key to the reason why Xanga, in spite of it's (really serious) dip in popularity, has maintained a very close-knit community. Xanga forces you to have to actually interact with the people around you beyond just the material they post. I would also argue that's why Xanga has one of the most hostile communities I've ever seen on a social network site. It's a fallout of actually having to deal with people. On Tumblr, you can ignore the response in your dash if you don't want to deal with it. On Xanga, that person is on the page you were commenting on; you can stop commenting on that post but you have to deal with them otherwise.
I think the fact that Xanga is a long-form blogging site helps as well. You can better explore ideas and concepts over long lengths of text than you can over short little posts. There's more to respond to as well, in that way.
Which isn't to say that Tumblr is entirely bad (despite my own biased frustrations with it). From an inginuity standpoint, Tumblr gets up there with Facebook, for me. It changed the way we use social network sites. There's something nice (and connecting) about constantly quoting your fellow bloggers. And posting is made so much simpler.
So the basic point is this: Xanga will die or live on in its own gated community if it decides to stop being free. The alternative (and I don't know if this is necessarily feasible) is to revamp itself so that it can pull more people in. Between a premium option (maybe, as much as my cheap ass hates to admit, without the option of credits so that you're forced to spend money) and advertisements, a popular and well-used Xanga should be able to turn a profit.
The first means of doing that is truly make it feel like an interlocked community. I want to feel, once I enter, like I am literally *in* a place where, from within its halls, I can do whatever I want. Facebook has this appeal and so does Tumblr. A dash can give that feel. Changing up the private page was *definitely* a wise move. While there's always the risk of being called out for copying (though Facebook and Google+ seem to be playing a game of tag of that), streamlining what you can post (text, quote, image, video, etc.) like Tumblr does could help make it feel like getting stuff done is quicker and simpler.
One of the things that made Xanga unique from the beginning was the complete customability it had in its themes. While the level of freedom has gotten Xanga in trouble in the past, having a manual way of mucking around in the plain code of your theme while keeping the remix theme wizard would be great. The fact that themes have been important, I think, is evident from the fact that it made it into the Xanga Fundraiser post. We've long been sour since losing that level of customability (though the remix theme thing is really rather impressive and detailed). What would be really nice is a theme "store" (except without any charge), like an app store or Google Chrome's plug-in "store". People could share themes they've made and other users could select them and mess around with them. This would make it really easy for new users to get into the spirit of a nice looking site, allow for theme-makers to advertise their site, and give the interconnected feeling that app stores give (tapping into experiences others might have had with app stores and plug-in repositories).
The same could go the plug-in idea, which I think is a fantastic idea. The Widget idea would have been fine, if a remote amount of JavaScript and regular HTML/CSS worked nicely in them.
Also, security. I think, if Xanga got security measures on par with Facebook, there would be a huge surge in attendants here. it would fit in perfectly with the use of the site as a personal place to post information about yourself that you might not want others (or particular users) to see.
Another buisness to take case of: get that Xanga app working. That's further advertisement and, the more you act like a social network and reach into every other network device, the more Xanga will seem like a modern social network site and be used.
And, of course, some advertising might help. Maybe some on YouTube and general Google advertisements to bring our existence back into the general populace's awareness.
That also means deciding whether we want to integrate the images and audio hosting into the use of the site more or leave them to the side like they currently are. I think the blogging aspect (and, in turn, the community interaction) are strong enough sellers that they could be fine as they are. It's just that it's awkward and you don't want to give a user that lingering feeling.
With the notion of having to pay for your site gone, the fundraiser should be pursued strongly with an emphasis that you can donate what you can. While I know a lot of people are going to be turned off by the notion of putting down 48 (or more) dollars, I think there are many who would be okay with putting down 5 dollars or less for the social network they've grown to love and call home (as well as those willing to give much more than that as well).
We say we're a community so let's prove that. I know there are graphic designers out there amongst us. I know there must be coders. And there has to be those willing to sit down and figure out how to code an iPhone app to get their beloved site alive. I have experience with doing design; maybe not enough for Xanga to hire me on their payroll but enough for a dying site to come to me for free work. Besides, you could give every person who worked on redesigning the site premium accounts, if saving the site isn't reward enough.
My point is, I know we're willing to band together and do what we can to save this site. I never really realized how much this site had become a community to me until I realized it was going to be gone; I'd talked about it and reasoned it but didn't realize I felt it. There is a real community here with real interactions and real connections. It's not just our sites and data that's being taken down – it's the people that's being taken away as well.
So let's get everyone giving what money they can towards saving this site while we alter Xanga so that it becomes a social site that'll keep users, whether that's graphic designs or coding services given for free because we don't want to lose this site. And, at the very least, try to keep open an avenue to sell it to someone else if saving it becomes an impossibility.
Xanga's my home, in ways I've never expected. And I don't know what to do if it leaves. There is no other social networking site that I'm aware of that offers what Xanga does. There are people I don't want to lose contact with. There are people who are safe here in ways that other places just can't offer. And we're not going to be able to just move the community to another site (or, at least, easily).
We want to stay.
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