July 9, 2013

• Good-bye Xanga

  On the 14th, it'll be 9 years since I first joined Xanga. I haven't really been a part of the community, but I was a Lifetime member and also a "True" member. Practically the only reason why I commented on other blogs was to get the "true" membership; and I know for a fact that I blogged about it because I tend to revisit past Xanga entries to see what was going on in my life. I've accumulated over 1,300 posts over the past 9 years, and it's been a ride. I may not have changed a lot since I was 14 years old, but I can sure as hell say that my grammar and punctuation has changed.

  It's unfortunate to say that Xanga will probably be shutting down about 16 days after that; I say "probably" because there's a good chance that it's going to get shutdown. I'm almost certain that it's going to get shutdown because the Xanga team have managed to extend the due date; originally, Xanga needed 60,000 dollars in fundraiser money by the 15th in order to get everything ready for "Xanga 2.0." It doesn't take a mathematician to know that, at the rate of money contribution, the fundraiser wouldn't meet 60,000. I'm even willing to say that it wouldn't even made it past 45,000 dollars by the 15th. People asked Xanga to extend the due date, and they responded with good news; however, it's not going to do much good. So far, there's 38,387 dollars pledged to Xanga if the fundraiser is successful. Since the due date has been extended, there's now 22 days (as opposed to 6 days). If the due date was still the 15th, the fundraiser would have to make an average of 3,602 dollars a day. Now that there's 22 days, Xanga has to average 982-983 dollars a day. Only four people have donated 480 dollars in one donation. Unless 982 people donate a dollar everyday, there's going to be a problem. The amount pledged is increasing very slowly; I'm sure it'll make to 40,000 dollars but there's still another 20,000 dollars that you have to account for. Unless a huge amount of money is put into the fundraiser, the probability that the fundraiser is going to be successful is very slim. Of course...things could change, but they aren't likely too. The main reason, from what I understand, is that this "Xanga 2.0" is going to require a paid membership of 48 dollars a year. It doesn't seem like a lot of money, but I pay 50 dollars a year for Xbox Live. That's 100 dollars a year. On top of that, Netflix is another 100 dollars a year. Ultimately, I would pay 200 dollars a year from memberships to a website. 24% of that money is going towards a blog. Why the hell would I do that when I can just use Facebook or the other well known blogging websites that offer their services free of charge? There'd have to be a huge incentive, but the Xanga Team hasn't really shown much. I guess it's because they want it to be a surprise. They hinted about the new features in their latest entry, but it only gives very general information. There are no screenshots, no actual examples of a Xanga 2.0 account, and it's possibly because Xanga hasn't finished getting Xanga 2.0 ready. I'm not sure if it's because, deep down inside, they know the fundraiser won't be successful, or if it's because they don't want to put all the effort into something and end up wasting their time because I think that it would be the ultimate let down if they work super hard on getting everything done only to fall 15,000 dollars short of being successful with the fundraiser.

  And yes...I do predict that the fundraiser will end with only 45,000 dollars pledged which I'm actually over-estimating. To me, that's like the best case scenario.

  Some of the most well known users on Xanga are, of course, going to be pledging their time/money to the fundraiser because they have developed a reputation and it'd be a shame if they had to start back over on a different website where the community wasn't micro-focused. It seems like the Xanga community is very small compared to other blogging websites because I always see the front page with regular users that I really have no interest in. In a way, I'm actually kind of happy to see all those popular blogs die out with the rest of us. Of course, there are going to be some, maybe most, well-known users who are going to stay for Xanga 2.0 to see what it's all about, but I believe that the general audience is going to turn towards different blogs. I, for one, have changed over to Google because Google is a big company and I just don't think they would shutdown a portion of their website without having an extremely big reason to.

  Just because I moved over already doesn't mean I don't regret it. It's really unfortunate that I would have to make a decision like this because I really anticipated to blog on this website for as long as I could. It just so happens that it's probably going to end this month. Even still, my blog lasted me for 9 years and I saved 1,300 entries onto my computer so I'm not exactly losing much. But for some people...they might be losing a lot. I mean...I've been through some psychologically messed up stuff the past years and Xanga really helped me get my thoughts out there. Xanga was my place for comfort because I knew the website well. I could've been popular, but no one wants to read about other people's lives, and that's the downfall of blogging with the intention on having a popular blog because most of the popular blogs are about other topics that people actually care about. However, now that I got a google account...I actually have two blogs: one for personal use, and one for the kind of topics people are willing to read about. Everything is set-up, but I haven't migrated fully to it because there's always a change that Xanga will reach 60,000 dollars and end up providing free service for a good quality product.

  This will be my last post after 9 years of my life. Xanga, I will miss you and my heart will always be with you. But if it comes to decision making, I'm going to make the best financial decision that I can. Good-bye, Xanga...and godspeed, Xanga team.

  • 11:17 pm
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