Over the past few weeks, there were a lot of posts related to Xanga's popularity, its survival, it's irrelevance etc.  Some points were valid, some were a bit overly dramatic, some completely off-base.  But regardless, the numbers are what they are and cannot be argued.  Xanga is not the place a lot of Bloggers are turning to anymore.  It has its following which is great, but more bloggers turn to Blogger or Wordpress or even their own custom designed blog to write and share etc. 



I am one of those who has decided to spend more of my time away from Xanga and more towards blogging on my Blogger site over the past few days.  I have also discovered a bunch of very interesting blog sites away from Xanga and I feel I need to share these to show that there is a life outside of Xanga.  Here a are a few to check out:






Musings of an Evil Genuis

Another Flight Attendant Writing

Holden it Together

The First Wonder of the World

Mama's Losin It

These are just a few interesting and entertaining blogs that I follow away from Xanga.  It is not a numbers game with any of them.  You don't find arguements and posts from readers who complain about Wordpress or Blogger or who troll around and pick fights with the blogger.  It is simply blogging. If you like to blog and like to read blogs of interest...check them out.

I am getting back to my travel roots and devoting more time to my work and passion and can be followed here

This does not mean I am shutting down my site here on Xanga...but it does mean I will be posting much less on here and mainly will come back to check messages and read some other posts etc.

Well….my little social study of Xanga is about over.  I feel like my observations over the past 2 or so years have allowed me to come to some pretty safe conclusions.  All of the chatter lately over the death of Xanga or the impending death of Xanga have further proven some of my theories etc.

Here are the facts as I see them now:

1)    Xanga is a small social club fish in a very large social network ocean
2)    Xangans like to be exclusive, but yet want others to come and just read their posts
3)    Xanga thrives on drama and controversy
4)    Lots of Xangans are in denial of why they are here

That pretty much sums it up.  The ever shrinking club of Xanga continues to wonder why the shrinkage all the while there are members who say…”I don’t want to be a friend with someone on here…”  Numbers shrink while you have people praise the site for being a group of friends and contacts where we can get to know one another anonymously which creates a clique in some regards.  Clique groups are not what others outside of Xanga are looking for which is why less people want to try to enter this social club. 

People come up with all of these ideas of how to get more members by having a variety of stories and posts make it to the front page of Xanga.  Honestly…that would not add users or gain readers.  Have you seen what most Xangans like to write about?  Drama!  Drama is the name of the game on Xanga if you want readership.  If you don’t believe me…try just posting some little story about your family’s last outing (not drama facts either, just plain facts).  Or try posting just a nice story about your day with your Grandma etc.  If you are just a normal everyday Xangan, that type of story may get 5-10 views, 2 comments etc from FRIENDS and zero rec’s.  Post a few of those in a row.  Then come back with some drama about someone or something here on Xanga and BOOM…a rec or two, bunches of views and comments and it just multiplies.  Post something  with the word “sex” or “boob” and watch the views soar through the roof. 

Guess what…it seems so many other blog sites like WordPress or Blogger are not that into soap opera type posts.  Most outsiders are probably seeing some of our “family” outbursts and running away as fast as they can because a lot of people really do not like a bunch of school yard drama.  In fact…post something about sex on Twitter and you will most likely lose followers.

Then you have the Xangans in denial.  They say they don’t want or don’t care about readership.  They say they just like to write and numbers don’t matter.  I have to say that I simply don’t believe that.  If you are here just to write…you have a word processor program that allows you to write. You can just write and save all of your posts on your hard drive if that is the case.  Why put them out on a public site of you don’t want readers to find what you write?

Then you have Xangans who bash other social sites like Facebook or Twitter.  That is starting to really make me laugh because of the reasons they bash them.  So many say…”I can’t understand why anyone would want to Tweet?”  But that same person on here will “Pulse” multiple times during the day.  Pulse…tweet…same exact thing.  Facebook status update….pulse….same exact thing.  It is simply part of the denial process on here where members try to make themselves think they are unique which again is not that appealing of a thing to the masses outside of Xanga,

So here is the game someone must play to be a Xangan or to be interested in being a Xangan. You must come on the site and try to read and comment as much as you can on other sites.  That then allows you to be someone who can then request a friendship.  Once you start to become friends with others, you then can post and actually have someone read what you post.  If you become friends with some of the “big wheels” on here…you then might get your post rec’d and read by several which then will lead to more friend requests and on the game goes.

Now for the guy who wrote that he is not interested in being friends with people on here and can’t understand why anyone is?  That is simply a crock.  Had he not been friends with others…his posts would have never gotten to the point that they are read and rec’d.  The game on Xanga requires being friends along with being sub’d to someone.  If you don’t believe that…go ahead and dump every friend you have today and see what happens.  Being friends with someone allows for interaction beyond posting blogs.  A lot of us require you to be a friend before we will accept private messages from someone.  Some have their sites on friend-lock as well for security so saying you don’t need to be friends with others on Xanga is just a bunch of hooey (I use hooey a lot).

So…as you see fewer new users and as you see more folks depart Xanga., don’t sit back and scratch your head and wonder why?  Just look at what Xanga is, accept what it has become and accept the rules that you must play by to be read.  A lot of folks don’t like those rules and will simply move on.