August 6, 2007

  • Xanga TV – now open for users!

    There’s a lot of similarities between blogging and TV.  Ever think of your life as a sitcom?  Or compare things that happen in your life to a tv show?   Xanga TV makes it easy to cross that divide.

    Before, streaming on the internet was costly and hard to do, but thanks to the video team - they figured out a way for some users to stream.  We’ve also built a nice themes system that allows Xanga TV to be supported as well.

    Getting Started

    Note: you have to be premium to try this out

    1.  First log in, and then go here: http://live.xanga.com/XangaTVRecorder.aspx 

    The player will automatically start broadcasting

    2Add the module to your sitexangatvinstruct
      Please note that only themes can support this module. 
       * Using a new window, go to your public page http://www.xanga.com/home2.aspx
       * Click Edit This Page
       * Click Add Modules
       * Click Xanga TV

    3.
      That’s it!
    When you’re done, just click Stop.  You can also start your stream by mousing over your Xanga TV module on your site and click + Broadcast. 

    We’re easing into this feature, so we’re only opening this up to our premium users first.  So if you have premium, definitely check it out and let us know what you think – And if you got a cool show going on, drop us a line – would love to see ya on TV!

June 7, 2007

  • Record Video straight to your site!

    Today we’re officially launching the Webcam Video Recorder!


    We’ve been noticing more and more vloggers on Xanga and also noticed the long process someone has to go through to upload a video from your webcam to Xanga.  There’s gotta be an easier way! So Michael included these features for a better vlogging experience:
    • Record directly off your upload page
    • Goes straight to the Xanga servers so it saves space on your computer
    • Shortened transcoding time (fastest around!)

    So if you have a webcam, check it out!  Try recording a video and let us know what you think – In fact, record a video and let us know there!

    http://video.xanga.com/record.aspx

May 31, 2007

  • Xanga for Life

    Due to popular demand, we’re bringing Lifetime Premium back!

    It’s been over 18 months since we stopped offering Lifetime Premium.  Yet, we still get emails from people asking for it!  One email stuck out in my head the most, when a user didn’t ask for the Lifetime Premium plan, but instead asked – “can I have Xanga for life?” 

    We thought it was just another premium plan – but rather, It’s a commitment, it’s a full pledge.  It’s Xanga for Life.  The great part of it is, you don’t have to get Lifetime Premium to grasp this, but for those that do, I think there’s something needed to stand apart. 

    These people helped Xanga be what it is today.  So, for all lifetimers you’ll now have the Xanga for Life badge to honor your committment.  This will display on your Basic Info module on your site. 

    Lifebig

    And if you don’t want to show this on your site, you have the option to hide this as well (http://edit.xanga.com/editpremium.aspx). 

    Furthermore, for a limited time only, we’re bringing the lifetime option back for people who want Xanga for Life

    This will give anyone a chance to get this limited time offer and enjoy themes, photos, videos, and all the new slick features to come out in the future as well – and be a part of Xanga for life. 

    https://register.xanga.com/premium/?plan=lifetime

April 26, 2007

  • boost + stars = most starred

    We’ve been working on ways to find good content on Xanga for a while now.

    Boost was good at finding pretty good content, but not so good with the multiple step nomination process. 
    Stars are good cause it’s really easy to vote (already 250,000 votes!), but it’s also easy to game and give ‘fake’ stars. 

    Then we thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we could take boost’s ability to find good content and combine it with the ease of voting in Stars?

    Starting now, if enough people give a lot of stars to a weblog, photo, or video, it will be automatically submitted to  http://star.xanga.com.  There the academy of xanga users (aka you!) can provide checks and balances by voting on what’s best.  This should make it pretty hard to game Stars.  If the academy of xanga users agrees that the post is really good, it must really be something – so we’ll give it a rare “Star Award”!  

    We also built in a system where if people try to game it by giving out fake stars or not honestly voting, the academy will fix it and the person’s star power will go down.  We hope this system will be easy to vote and show the best content on Xanga.

    Please check it out and tell us what you think!

April 24, 2007

  • Now you can open up your Xanga!

     Every site now has the option to allow anonymous comments!  Now you have a choice:

    • If you want to allow anonymous comments, no need to do anything – it’s available on your site already.

    • If you use locks (xanga lock and friends lock), no need to do anything.  The locks should work as it always has, and outsiders will not be able to visit or comment, just like before.

    • If you want to disable this option, just go here and change your Anonymous Comments option to “no”:
      http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountprivacy.aspx

    So how about spam?  Vikas also added some cool preventive measures to help stop annoying spam.  Before leaving an anonymous comment, it asks for a word code just to make sure a script isn’t being used to automate unwanted spam.

    So check it out!  Tell your friends who haven’t got around to making a Xanga yet, to leave you a comment and say hello – anonymous comments are here!

April 19, 2007

  • Seeing stars?

    Ever since we’ve started hand-picking weblog posts to Feature on our frontpage, we’ve noticed how hard it is to find quality posts on Xanga. It’s hard to find find if you don’t know where to look.  Eprops and comments don’t do a good job because almost everyone just gives 2 eprops.

    So dave and vikas added “Stars” to Photos and Videos – a low key way that allows visitors to rate your post on a scale of 1 to 5.  They’ve been a huge hit!  We’ve gotten thousands of stars, and it really helps in identifying good content.  So we thought we’d add them to Weblogs too – you can see them below each post.

    It’s also a good way for people who don’t like to leave comments to give feedback when they think a post is really good.

    Some people might not like Stars though, so we’ve built an optout.  If you deactivate Stars, the Stars option should disappear from your site soon.  Just go here to turn them off:
     
      * http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountprivacy.aspx   

    By the way, sorry to have launched Stars without a head’s up!  We had planned to post about this ahead of launch, but due to an internal mixup we didn’t get to it in time .
      
    Let us know what you think of Stars!

March 12, 2007

  • Pulse comment alerts coming soon!

    We’re just about to launch comment alerts for Pulse.  Like mobile pulse alerts, you’ll receive an email when someone leaves a comment on your pulse. 

    Because pulse is so short in nature, we were able to add the comment itself in the email too. 

    But - getting alerts isn’t for everyone so here’s a chance to opt out of getting these pulse alerts to your email.

    http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountsettings.aspx

    Just toggle to “No” and you won’t receive pulse comment alerts in the coming days.  If you want to turn off your mobile messages (this won’t affect your ability to post from your phone) go here.  For everyone else, stay tuned and check your email inboxes for pulse alerts.

February 23, 2007

January 17, 2007

  • New Frontpages!

    I’ve been on Xanga a long time and made a lot of friends – I love reading about their lives, looking at their photos, watching their videos. Yet, sometimes I feel like I’ve read everything that my friends have to say…and wish there was more.  I’d love to see new, fresh content.

    That’s why i’m excited about these new ‘frontpages’ on Xanga (which you’ll also find at the top tabs throughout Xanga too!).

    http://weblog.xanga.com

    http://photo.xanga.com

    http://video.xanga.com

    It expands your horizons by providing content on Xanga that is most recent, top boosted, and most viewed.  It gives you a sense of what the Xanga community is up to! 

    Also, since these pages represent the Xanga community, we were thinking of having these pages as our frontpage  ! Please check these pages out and tell us what you think!

November 13, 2006

  • Get Your Boost On!

    You might have noticed a new little box appear on the frontpage today, called Boosted Contentboostfront This little guy has been growing quite a cult following so, Vikas slapped it on the frontpage for the world to see! 

    There’s so much awesome content on Xanga that the oft broken Featured Content just seemed to miss.  So we’ve been working towards this new system which does a pretty good job of finding great content.   

    For those of you who may not be familiar with boost, the two summer interns who created Boost, Matt (half man, half wolverine) and Jeff (100% USDA approved Jeff), explain it:

    It’s a new way to find and share content in a blogging community.  In part, it’s a stream of fresh content, always changing.  It’s also a bit of a competition, to keep things exciting. Most importantly, it’s powered by your opinion, so start boosting!

    So basically, think of Boost like a viewer’s choice awards type of deal.  You nominate who gets on there, everyone votes, and the best are displayed!  And yes, boosting is a lot easier than you think.  It’s already on most pages right now – click into any post – you’ll see a “boost this entry!” link in the side module.

    So what are you waiting for?!  Get your Boost on – and tell us what ya think!