June 3, 2013
-
Xanga Shutting down?
So… I’ve been hearing through the grapevine that Xanga isn’t doing so hot. (Which I’m sure you guys have heard about it, since you and I are literally the ONLY people I know who actually still have one of these and post on a fairly regular basis.)
All I can really say when I hear about this new is “HOLY CRAP, I WISH I COULD GET ALL OF MY BLOG POSTS CONVERTED INTO BOOK FORM.”
After all, these Xanga posts are a solid chunk of my life: From May of 2004, to today.
That is 9 years of bi-monthly updates about my life…
In 2004. I was 16.
I was ending middle school, and realized that Xanga was a safe place to post my thoughts because I was too lazy to keep a physical journal (ironically, I didn’t realize that I was filling sketchbooks faster than I could buy them, and so, they are my visual diaries).
But the sad thing about posting to a blog is that it literally doesn’t physically exist.
A diary (or in my case, a sketchbook) is something that you can hide away on a shelf, and pull out years later.
I thought that was something I’d be able to do with this blog, and the inevitable demise of Xanga is something that does make me profoundly sad.I’ve thought about donating to keeping Xanga alive and well, but when I heard about the site no longer being free anymore, I had to take a step back.
I really hope I misheard about that, but that thought alone changes my idea of this blog all together. Because I freaked out a bit, I paid to go premium and will be archiving my posts so I can save a version to my ext. hard drive if the site does go belly-up. $25 is a small fee for nearly 10 years of memories.Anyway, how are you guys handling the news? I’d love it if Xanga posts were compatible to create into a Blurb book… Which, as it turns out, isn’t seeming possible from what research I’ve done. Oh well. We’ll see.
I’ll be posting an update about Ben and my trip to the MN Zoo from this past weekend. When I get home it shall be done!
Much love,
Mary
Comments (9)
yes! archive! for years i’ve feared and predicted Morte d’Xanga. considering you used the term “inevitable demise”, probably you have too. i’d hate to completely lose contact. can we friend on the more stable facebook? if you search complicatedlight there you can find me. :/<3
@complicatedlight - Yeah! I know, I’m surprised I haven’t jumped on the archiving thing sooner. Also, to FB I shall go
^.^
@complicatedlight - :D
I archived both my sites that I’ve had over the years. It doesn’t take the place of a physical journal though, I agree. I want to print it all and put it in a binder, but can you imagine the cost of that? At least we can save everything to our computers though. It really is cool to look back at how we’ve changed over the years and what we were going through at different times in our lives.
@destinationmoderation - That’s smart of you! In retrospect, I probably should have jumped on archiving my blog that sooner. But for now it works
I have researched websites that take your blog posts and compiles them into giant books, which would end up being pretty expensive, but as worth it as a wedding photo book (which I still haven’t gotten for my wedding, haha!).
Oh well, off to WordPress, or some place. I FB invited both of you guys.
I’ve been on here since 2004, also…that’s a lot of posts to lose. I had a kind of parallel blog hosted at Apple, and Apple shut down all their hosting last June. I was disappointed, but I thought, “Well, I still have my stuff on Xanga.” But now not even that anymore. I’m glad their letting us non-premium members archive.
@bananaleaf_soapbox - It’s so sad
Is no blog sacred?