January 22, 2009
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Xanga – what’s your future?
Are good bloggers still around? Who do you like to read and is Xanga still a good place to find interesting, creative and intelligent writing? Every so often, I read that blogging is on the wane. What was once very popular turned out to be a fad for most people. Maybe those that looked to Xanga as a social network site has gone to Facebook. I’m sure there are many that have both but are spending more time at Facebook. Others who consider themselves serious bloggers probably moved on to WordPress. I’ve looked around there a bit. The themes there seem to be more polished and professional looking.
How does Xanga fit in to this world? I wonder if it’ll start to concentrate on only 1 demographic or will it try to be a bit of everything? And if I move to WordPress, will you folks still follow me? That’s probably one of the best things I’ve found here – the readers and the feeling of community. I’m just not sure I’ll find it anywhere else.
I still like Xanga. I would hate to start over again at another site. I sometimes wonder what the average Xangan can do to drive more traffic to this site. What can we do to help Xanga thrive?
Ah… so many questions circling my head tonight.
Comments (25)
Good question, Matt! I am not sure what will happen to Xanga either. There seems to be more “video blogging”. Serious writing as WordPress offers is also up and coming. I would never had even looked at WordPress without Michael’s move there. To be honest I might well follow anyonee of my friends on Xanga to another site. I am not sure what Xanga can do to keep the community going.
It seems to me that Xanga is still alive and well. I subscribe to, I don’t know, seventy people or so, of which about twenty (including you, Curry, Jason and Zakiah) write regularly.
In the past year, I feel like the Xanga community I’m involved in has grown stronger. I know more Xangans and know them better. I continue to read interesting, thoughtful writing from a diverse range of people.
So from that standpoint, I don’t have any questions or worries about Xanga’s future. Sure, people will come and go. Some will write more, some will write less. But there still seems to be just as many nuggets of gold out there (amidst just as much crap) as always.
You raised an interesting issue as a few of our regulars have moved on to other blogging sites. One of the main attraction is that Xanga has a small groupie feeling…so I wonder what other questions are circling within Matt’s head tonight?
The best part about Xanga for me is its community nature. There is a lot more interaction here than on Blogspot/Wordpress and I have come to know a variety of people here.
Matt, I checked out WordPress after reading your question. I noticed that there are hardly any comments there. Almost feel like reading a newspaper, well-written, interesting, but not much interaction between blogger and readers. What I like there is the tag, instead of xanga’s many …ish sites, lol. I could easily hit a tag and read all other blogs that is related to that tag. Somehow feel like reading “Google News” site, lol. I agree with everyone that Xanga reader are very active, have community sense. I learned a lot here reading, and to be honest, maybe because I am nosy sometimes.
WordPress feels more formal, and Xanga feels like a village, hehe. Guess what, my virtual friends, you probably know about what I have been doing and thinking more than my family. You probalby know that there are things I blog about that my mom would never know, hehe.
@Fatcat723 - let’s hope that Xanga will thrive.
@christao408 - lol… I know what you mean by the amount of crap out there.
@curry69curry - I was probably wondering what Curry is eating tonight.
@Dezinerdreams - I agree with you about the level of interaction. I like that too.
@stevew918 - I have a similar impression too about WordPress. I wonder if some of the comments are just private or the blogger has chosen not to show them. It does have a very slick cosmopolitan look to it.
I feel like after all the fad has gone away, lots of people lost interest.
However, in the past year, people who like to blog came back to xanga
Probably because there is a lack of community on other sites
@Wangium - I for one am glad to see you blogging regularly again.
i always thought of xanga as less of a social site and more of a writer’s blog… but maybe that’s because those are the blogs i choose to read. i don’t have any other blogs so i guess i don’t have much to compare to. i must admit, however, i am contributing to the problem — i’m one of those whose blogging frequency has declined, mostly because i just get busy and don’t have the time to sit and write like i used to. ah well…
I’m fairly new to Xanga and am only now starting to expand my subscriptions, so I can’t really comment on Xanga’s progress or lack thereof. I really enjoy the bloggers I’m in touch with–notably Steve and Chris above.
I’d love to know more people who share my interests in reading, film, and the arts, so when you encounter them, please send them my way!
@kunhuo42 - hahaha… I know what you mean. When it gets really busy, Xanga is one of the first things to suffer for me.
@jojobaDESIGNS - good luck and have fun building up your subscription lists. One way to do it is via blogrings.
Seriously you better not leave us AGAIN! I had my own blog before and you are right I did NOT get the same sense of community. I will definitely follow you to WordPress if you do end up moving but seriously don’t!
I also think that most people don’t have the commitment it takes to blog. It’s hard work to think of things to blog about and to maintain the level of enthusiasm unless you really enjoy it. And…I don’t think that there is anything different among the different blogging sites, it’s just what you are used to.
I’d have to agree with you. It takes a lot of time to keep a blog running as you need to regularly post. Xanga is quite constraining too. I would’ve moved to WordPress too if I didn’t get so much traffic from Google. I guess I’m also too lazy to design something new.
@brooklyn2028 - I’ll still be around for awhile. I just have to figure out how to freshen up the look with these crazy themes. It’s a bit of a pain…
I do agree about the community – it’s the biggest incentive for me to stay. It is also hard to blog regularly. I mean, I don’t just want to write “I woke up, had breakfast, went to work…” type of entries. But I like to write so it’s a nice break (from writing business reports).
@rice_eric - yeah, it does take a lot of effort to update it regularly. It’s one of the ways to sustain some level of readership although that’s not the number one reason that I write. But I do like reading my comments.
I made my own blog over a year ago at http://yellowtoma.to but I have a hard time writing on there since 1) I’m lazy 2) I don’t know how many people actually reads it 3) I write mainly in Chinese on there which reduces the people who will read it
my point is that it’s hard for me to leave xanga completely (not that I had any intention to do so) as I have a whole subsription base of people I read and also people who will look at my xanga entries
xanga, as you said is a nice community, which I’m sure will continue to grow =]
however, I do think that other blogging sites like http://www.blogger.com and wordpress do have their own communities too, it just depends on who’s writing where.
very nice update on your new theme, btw! I love it~ =D
@tomatoboi - I wish I could do better themes. I just go through them randomly and select something that looks clean.
I don’t read Chinese
so I’m sure I miss out on some good blogs.
@tomatoboi - I’m curious if you ever thought of doing that in Xanga but in English. Or do you worry that things may get lost in the translation?
@ElusiveWords -
I wouldn’t think things would get lost in translation if I written that in English on xanga. it’s just that I wanted to write them in Chinese since it’d be more personal as that’s my mother tongue.
and my purpose for xanga was never to write about my thoughts to begin with.. I started my xanga account at first only commenting others and then it evolved to posting those silly surveys people write about themselves and pass them on to others. (which in a sense I guess is somewhat contradicting the fact that I said xanga wasn’t to write about myself)
I guess my posts on xanga have evolved over time to become mainly photo oriented, with occations where I do post about my thoughts or feelings.
I think that even just through the photos that I post, one is able to tell a lot about me nonetheless.
@ElusiveWords -
basically, stuff I write on there are more personal and talks more about me and my thoughts on things. it was intended as a way to let others get to know me better throught the things I write on there.
yet I don’t think the purpose has been achieved since I rarely write anything on there… hahaha so I don’t think you’re missing out on much
I started to write blogs 2 years after I joined Xanga, after reading other Xangans’ blogs.
I treat it like my Journals(though not on a daily basis), a place to express my feelings, my thoughts…. and sharing of some experiences which I can’t do let’s say Facebook( except sharing the food pictures..)….I remember nearly for a year…there were no traffic to my blog…hahahaha And now I’m enjoying the little community touch
Just make your site searchable…that will help drive traffic.
@tomatoboi - well, perhaps over time, you’ll start to write some more in Xanga.
@agmhkg - yeah, I like the little community too. When I first started out, I had no comments for the longest time.
@CareyGLY - it’s searchable – I just checked my settings. Maybe I should just write more often.
Happy New Year!
no, don’t move to wordpress. based on past experience, i would not follow you as i have not followed anyone haha! i redid my site though using wordpress. i’m really loving wordpress right now…
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