Xanga
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As of 2005-04-24, Alexa Internet rated Xanga the 14th most popular English-language website, and the 27th most popular website in the world.
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Overview
Xanga is a free Web-based journal-hosting service. These journals are themselves sometimes called "Xangas". It is largely used by teenagers and young adults, but is open to anyone at least 13 years old. Users are allowed to post any number of messages per day, and they may post comments on other people's journals. Users may customize how their Xanga looks, using pre-made templates or custom HTML. Subscription lists, blog rings, and other features implement a social network. Xanga journals are used for a wide variety of purposes, from personal diaries to social and political commentary. Primarily monitored by the community, Xanga has a few administrators who handle potential threats and violations.
Features
Xanga offers both a free service and a pay service. All Xanga accounts are accessible via http://www.xanga.com/username. One popular aspect of Xanga is the ability to customize the appearance of one's journal. Included with their free service is a basic layout formatter that allows non-HTML literate users to change their journal's layout and style, including colors and border styles. Those who do know HTML are able to include their own code within the page, allowing customization beyond what the basic layout system supports. Users can have profile pictures, which are displayed next to their posts and comments. Using other free sites such as Photobucket, users can post multimedia content, such as photos and music, which the basic Xanga service itself doesn't include. Xanga also offers a paid Premium service offering many extra features [1] (http://www.xanga.com/about/premium/).
Community
Xanga places particular emphasis on community, allowing its users to subscribe to others' blogs, or to create and join categorized groups called blogrings. On 2004-11-10, Xanga launched Xanga Metros, a feature that allows users to find other users in their same area. With the rising popularity of the service, there have been many noted cases of hoax and fakers in the xanga community as well, impersonating celebrities whose xanga use is questionable (though several celebrities, especially younger, or youth-oriented, personalities, are known to use the service, including Asian rapper Jin, whose Xanga site was one of his major promotional tools). See Computer-mediated_communication
Comments
Other users who register may leave comments on a post. Along with the comment, they can leave eProps. Comments may be disabled several different ways. There is an option when one creates a new post to disable comments and eprops for that post. Also, if one's username has been blocked by a certain xanga site, that username will not be able to comment on that site. "Will someone know that I blocked them?" (http://help.xanga.com/someoneknowblocked.htm). Comments are the best way to communicate on xanga. Comments on protected entries can only be seen by those on the protected list.
eProps
In addition to comments, Xanga allows users to add eProps to other users' blog entries. Eprops is what Xanga uses to encourage users to comment. A commentator can assign the post being commented on 0, 1, or 2 eProps, depending on the quality of the post. Sites that receive the most eProps are highlighted on the Featured Content page. Eprops encourage users to post more. Usually, those who write what is considered interesting content build a large fan base behind them. Xanga's explanation (http://help.xanga.com/whatisaneprop.htm)
Xanga Premium
Xanga also offers a pay service, called Xanga Premium. Members who subscribe to Premium service receive additional features, such as an expanded editor with an integrated spell checker. Premium members may also fully customize their site using skins, post entries to their site via electronic mail, host images through Xanga, and download archives of their entries. Pages using Premium service do not contain web banners. Some features of premium use include- more streamlined publishing, a premium content editor known as xTools, special Premium color palettes, on-site image hosting, downloadable blog archives, a larger, "Super-Size" editing area, post protection and caching, spell checking, more streamlined email posting guidelines, removal of banner ads, a higher limit of profile pictures, a custom sidebar, specialised page skins, community interaction, and a browser for subscriptions to other xanga-based blogs [2] (http://www.xanga.com/premium).
Notable news
On May 17, 2005, police used a murder victim's last Xanga entry (http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=ToTo247&tab=weblogs&uid=261268578) to identify his and his sister's killer [3] (http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/310320p-265498c.html).
In April 2005, the Fresno Bee reported that students at Buchanan High School in Clovis, California were using Xanga to insult and threaten their classmates. Also, cyber-bullying at classmates and family members was reported. [4] (http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/10373653p-11176907c.html)
Xanga tools
Visitor logging
- XTracker (http://www.xtracker.us/)
- Got'em (http://www.gottem.net/)
- Ultimate Logging System Professional (ULSP)
- The Xanga Anti-Stalker Module (http://suhock.net/)
- xanLog (http://tzui.info/)
External links
- Xanga.com (http://www.xanga.com)
- About the Xanga name (http://help.xanga.com/about/aboutourname.htm)
- Blogring.net (http://blogring.net)
- createBlog.com (http://www.createblog.com)zh:Xanga