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I've been with Xanga since, apparently, the 6th of April 2001. I had Premium for I think five years of that time, though twice it was a gift.
I'm leaving.
I'm sorry, I've had it. Most of you know that for the last year or so I've been parallel posting at Livejournal, since the lovely carry-on over Blog rating. Since then, ironically, LJ has brought in flagging themselves, but you know, I thought I was just too tired to care any more. And I've shrugged when I've seen people who don't use the LJ or Facebook communities talk about how they're not as good as Xanga, and let it go. Each to their own. Change for the sake of change, that makes it HARDER to use the site? Who gives a damn, really. Still no multiple protected list like we've been asking for for years? Mmm. Popping along to the sites of people who complain and saying hey, thanks for taking an interest, we'll take that on board, and then doing absolutely nothing? Okay.
But Xanga knows its user base has been steadily dropping for two years, or they should, because if I can find their web stats, so can they. And there are things they do well. Having the people who run the site blog and be part of the community is a really, really good idea.
The Advent of True Xangans was not.
What's true about the True Xangans is that they blog and comment more than other Xangans. They are therefore, as the True site says, the BEST. Now, I'm not saying that these people don't deserve something. From Bardic Web, we know that the people who post the most shape the community. But we sure as hell don't give 'em badges saying they're our best writers, or the only 'true' members of our community, because we'd be insulting more people than we'd be complimenting, and just from a business point of view that would be stupid, let alone the divide it would drive through the community.
Like flagging, this has been implemented really poorly. 'True' is the wrong word. It implies that everyone who doesn't have the True badge is, well, false. They're false Xangans, they don't really belong. And when I read Morgane's blog this morning and felt yet again like I could have written it myself, I had mixed feelings. I'd never have met her if it weren't for Xanga, and I love her. But I'm leaving.
The only reason I still maintained a presence here was for the handful of people still here that I didn't want to lose touch with. Morgane and the_tramp and krisinluck, and my darling Foxx and Sayana... gosh I bet I just insulted someone. But I also think you know who you are. I'll be leaving this site up for as long as I can, with a link to my livejournal blog at the top, and still checking my SIR, but I won't be posting here again. And the next time people want to talk about how wonderful the Xanga community is, they may be able to reflect on the fact that they know a lot of people who've left, and they know exactly why they've left. That's it for me: True.
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| | Posted 2/10/2008 2:23 PM - 645 Views - 16 eProps - 13 comments
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