January 4, 2003

  • CONCLUSION: YOU NOTICED SOMETHING DIFFERENT


    Thanks to everyone for your feedback…  I think I set a record for number of “zero eprops”!


    I personally tested hundreds of sites with the new page, so I was surprised when so many users reported problems.  Mostly it came down to:


    TRANSPARENT MODULES AND SEARCH BARS



    We didn’t realize that so many users were using css and javascript hacks to:



    • Hide their Search Bars

      • Or make them transparent

    • Make their Left Modules transparent
    • Hide the Xanga Banners

    We hear you loud and clear: no one wants to learn HTML and CSS just to fix a change that we forced on users. 


    So we’re working now to add Look and Feel settings that let you hide your search bars, and let you give both Search and Left Modules transparent backgrounds.  Give us a day or two to get that to you…


    POSTING CALENDAR



    I liked the old posting calendar too!  The problem is, in order to generate it we had to load a whole month’s worth of blog posts from the database.  That was killing our servers, and making the whole site slower…


    So we had to take it out as the default calendar.  But based on popular demand and negative feedback (i.e. “this new admittedly slick style is really quite useless to me”), we’re considering bringing it back in a revamped form.  Stay tuned for more details…


    TRUSTED JAVASCRIPTS



    We’ll be adding in some more trusted Javascript sites.  Based on the feedback so far, we’re looking at okcounter, bravenet, xstats, jippy, and nedstat.  Let us know if we missed any.


    Thanks again for bearing with us today.  Looking back on this experience, I can see that we are going to have to dramatically increase the size and diversity of our beta testing program. 


    So please let us know if you’re interested in being a beta tester in the future, so we can do a better job of anticipating issues like these in the future.  Thanks!

Comments (106)

  • hmm… on this log-in, there is no trash can. ergh! did you put it somewhere or get rid of ‘em or what?

    and on my other log-in, it’s set to center and is aligned to the left. also, the name/tagline is fullscreen and the rest is set to 700 pixels width, like it’s supposed to. hrrrrm!

  • oh, but i like the rest. good job.

  • doody, am i the only one whose banner alignment is all messed up?  i’m much too moronic to be left to figure it out myself.  it would be nice to see the old calendar again, thank you for looking into it. 

  • hah thanks. =)

  • yAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY!! thank you thank you thank yoU!! ^^

  • i had mad codes on my xanga but now half of them dont even work i worked so hard to get those to make those to find those . plz make xanga tha way it used to be ;x*

  • I’d like the old calendar back. I would be happy for it not to show what days I posted on unless I asked, click on a date or have a URL to click on to update the calendar. The new one is quite useless to me. I used the old one to jump to a month, then click on the dates that have posts to find the one I want. With the new one I would have to step back day by day.. including all the empty days. I can understand why you might want to avoid the performance hit.. but if you keep the new style, can I have some way to get rid of it off my page?

    You are doing all this work to save your servers, but you insist on defaulting to sending out emails of posts to subscribers. When I sub to a site I have to go and turn OFF the emails. In fact I dont’ know why you have 2 links for subbing, one to sub and one that says “get the full email sub” when they both turn on emailing of weblogs. Why don’t you make it easier to sub wwithout email, even make the default being no email.

    If you want a Netscape 7.1 beta tester I am happy to help. If you want a MacOS X tester I can probably find one of those for you too.

  • I’d be happy to test things…and I can’t WAIT for the transparency settings!

  • that sounds much better. =) thanks.

  • Thanks for doing all that you guys do for this site, I personally like most of the changes +shrugs+. Oh, and I wouldn’t mind being a beta tester.

    -elektrikfish

  • nnnnnooooooooooo i like the new calender

  • ahh waiting for my counter back…glad ur check out bravenet^^

  • Ok. Never mind about my previous comment about the old calendar. This one is fine.

    …I asked if Web Site Traffic Report javascript could be included.

    I’m interested in becoming a beta tester. email me if you need to.

  • personally, i like the new calendar AND the old one. how about making calendar format an option?
    sure, more work for you guys…sorry.
    as for the .aspx mess ups, mine stem from using IE v5 on mac. still waiting for microsoft to release an update for mac.

  • for me

    i like the old thing much better! it’s not that the thing u got now is bad… just that i liked the old stuff! u dont ned to give us an option and things.. i liked our own code for hidin’ search bars and modules! and i also liked the old calendar! just a suggestion =)

  • oh yeah, you’ll jump right on that ad-hiding code fix!

  • re: the calendar.

    i don’t see why that’s such an expensive operation. you just need to test for the existance of posts on a given day, not grab their contents, i.e. SELECT DISTINCT post_date FROM posts WHERE user_id=’foo’ AND post_date >= ’2002-12-01′ AND post_date <= ’2002-12-31′. Then you can iterate over the list. This is only an O(n) operation.

    if what I’m saying isn’t feasible give your current architecture, you can always implement caching and have each calendar regenerated only if it hasn’t been generated in more than 24 hours.

  • love the changes!

  • I’m interested in being a beta tester!

  • good show!

  • good job

  • I meant to complain more, but felt like I was just being a major bitch/bother when I did report stuff, so I rolled with the changes and adjusted (mostly I’d go back to the www format whenever the beta one did something screwy)… now I realize I should’ve been an utter pain each time I noticed any glitches, I could’ve maybe spared ya at least a dozen complaints… Sorry!

  • umm could u possibly put the banners at the bottonm istead if it HAS to be on the page cuz most backgrounds look weird when the banner is on the top of the page

    =)

  • I’m interested in being a beta tester!

    Raven

  • I’m not hip enough with the coding thing to have made changes that are greatly affected by you guys’ new coding efforts.  I just notice that the pages are loading much faster and that’s great. 

  • Keep the new calendar!! Takes less time to find stuff and the page loads A LOT quicker!! I only had to fix one color in the side bar so no worries!! I love the faster loads since that calendar isn’t looking for everything. Thanks!

  • *raises finger in the air*

    Ooh, pick me, pick me!

    I wanna be a beta tester!! =D

  • how about sparklit for the counters…

  • Well, if you are gonna work on the calendar… I want a 3-d calendar! Or, a virtual reality calendar! Best yet, I want a calendar that knows what entry I am looking for just by me saying, “I am looking for this post with ‘x’ content! Find it!”

  • hi..is there ANY possible way the banner ad on the top can dissapear..the other sutff are okay..but please make the banner dissapear..!!!

  • Thanks for the update.

  • While I appreciate the effort and the wanting to keep your service up to date as far as CSS and coding goes, I still think that unnessecary changes should be avoided…
    My Xanga site looks fine… but, my private page is all screwed up. the posts seem to be layed out in the center of the page below the left modules… Notihng big, because like i said, My public page looks fine, I’m just wondering if theres anything i can do about my private page?

  • ok i was rude before.. now that i had time to calm down and think it over, i wanna rephrase what i said.

    first off i want to thank you guys for trying to make xanga better. what with all the new xanga users and huge page hits every day i’m sure it’s better for everyone to make things faster, even if it is to kill off the old calendars.

    second, i guess if it really bothers me that much.. i could just buy premium to get rid of the ad. =T although my student’s allowance is spent on edible food rather than that stuff that’s one step up from poisonous that they serve in the cafeteria. although it would be really cool if we could still get rid of it the old way and i guess i could live with the search bar.

    third though.. =[ i just don’t like that i can’t change the width of my page. i mean i used a div table at width 510 before to fit my blogs into the big cloud, but now that’s not working. =P does it have to be 600?

    ok. thanks for reading this, and sorry about before.

  • oo yeah, i’d like to be a beta tester. =]

  • Example of what my private site looks like now… It looked fine before y’all made your changes and what not.

    Also, as far as the calendars go, I preferred the old ones… easier to see when there were posts, so i could go back and read. And most of the sites here that I’ve seen, already had the drop down calendar on their pages…

  • whabout the counters from hostedscripts.com ??

  • i’d like to be a beta tester for the next time…also, http://www.sitemeter.com is a good site to add.

    -sophia

  • i want my stupid ad + search bar off now!

  • even with the changes i was able to get my xanga to how it was, its not so difficult if u try.. but thanx for putting it back to how it used to be..

    altho i wasnt the one being rude and demanding the changes just wanna say sorrie for the rudeness.. not that many ppl have manners..

  • I want to be a beta tester!

    Oh, and I agree with SimpleE_IrresistiblE…some people just don’t have manners.  I add my apology to that person’s as well.

  • good job ;] can u add yescounter as one of the counter things too? thanks

  • my site is still unattainable! these changes are horrible

  • Hey, I would be perfectly happy to be a Beta tester…truth be told I kinda felt bad about whining about the things that changed that I didn’t like…(although I still can’t seem to get my Amazon search box to have a white background like it used to and I still can’t get my Jippy birthday thing to show up where I want it) considering that I know next to nothing about how most of this junk works and I DO know that you people bust yer collective butts to make sure those of us who use your stuff continue to do so…especially those of us who pay for the privelage, heh…

    Anywho…keep up the good work…

    And don’t let all the ignorant Philistines get ya down…

    “Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the Law.”

    (Oh and if you just *cough* happen to put my on the Premium spotlight I would be oh so very grateful……)

    –End of Line–

  • I really like the new calendar. Maybe there’s a way to combine both the new and old calendar? In the past I found it way too difficult to find old posts. The new on is perfect!

    I do however, miss my Nedstats counter tho….

  • I was wondering earlier today y my okcounter was gone….now I know y….Also what about making the Flooble chatter boxes transparent? That also could be good….

  • Thanks guys!… oh, and just a quick question… have you ever thought about anonomyous commenting? just wondering.. i’m sure you have.. sorry dumb question.. but i just know a lot of people who want to comment once or twice, but don’t want to take the time to sign up for an account.. anyway.. just a random thought that was in my head.. thank again for relooking the changes! oh! and any suggestions about the alignment and how to fix it?
    =m=

  • Well john, if I can help in anyway, just let me know.

  • Thanx John!

  • hey john i think ur doin a really awesome job tryin to make xanqa betta and all… kinda screwed up my site, but it’s ok :] i mean, if it werent for you and marc and dan we wouldnt even hav xanga!!  so, yea, thanks :D

  • is it just me… or have there been no changes to my site?

    i wonder why ??

    anyhoo… the changes sound great -tyfrz

  • ooh wait. sorry. i did get a new calender! altho i like the old one more… -tyfrz

  • HOW ABOUT THE FREAKEN’ TIME ZONE PROBLEM? WHY IS IT ALL EASTERN STANDARD TIME???? WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE IN THE CENTRAL, PACIFIC, AND DIFFERENT TIME ZONES ACROSS THE WORLD?????

  • FIX THE TIME ZONE

  • first off i would like to say that you’ve done a great job with producing xanga, but i would also like to make a few suggestions that i would like to see done and i think others would too. first, is it possible that we could have pop ups for banners or placing our banners at the bottom of our site instead of having it smack at the top of each page? i really hate that and i know a whole lot of others don’t like it either. why else would we try to cover it up with codes? Second, yeah you already know this but i would like to repeat it. I really like the old calanders b/c i think it’s more unique to look at. Maybe you can have an option in the look and feel section instead of making it a defult for everyone. lastly, the time stamp should be fixed cuz not everyone using xanga lives in the east cost, although the time stamp doesn’t bug me that much, but only a lil..hehe. But yeah..that’s my inpute..hope you’ll consider some of the stuff i said…eh hem…especially the banners..hate banners..hehe

  • lol on the 0 eprops comment

  • Oh yeah, and after reading the comments and seeing that some people actually like the new calendar better, I think it would be great to have both. Makes changing month to month easier. I love how it’s set at Eastern time. Most other sites all have it on Pacific and it drives me nuts. I guess I can relate to the people who are complaining, but still, I love it at Eastern. Thanks again.

  • ok.  first of all.  ya’ll who keep complaining bout ads, time zones, calendars, yada yada, LISTEN TO THIS. 

    the ads are how xanga makes money.  without money, there is no xanga.  that’s why you gotta pay for premium for ad-free pages.  the ads are NOT all that big.. they’re strips.  i dont have premium and i dont use codes to cover the ads up cuz i really dont care… worry about more important things than ADS, aiite?!  popups would be much MUCH more annoying and worse!

    second.  can any of you COMPREHEND how difficult it would be for john, marc, and dan to change the time stamps for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU PEOPLE?!  i live in korea, sometimes when i post on one day, it comes out as posted the day BEFORE!  it’s NOT a big deal… get over yourselves.  there are hundreds, thousands of users of xangas, you should be thankful to these guys for letting you have sites which cost PLENTY of money, specially bandwith.  and if these guys try to fix the time stamp, eating up an unnecessary amout of server space and time, then yall will complain that xanga’s always down for renovations.

    so… just try your best to fix whatever was screwed up.  my ENTIRE site screwed itself over, and i’m wasting time on this computer when i have fckin school tomorrow =.= yea… anyway.

    thanks for trying to make xanga better for us and all john~ it really is appreciated :]

    and john, if it’s not too much trouble, could you also look into http://www.tag-board.com?  it’s sorta like a chatterbox… most of my friends use tb’s, and it’s a javascript code with iframes and it gets all screwed up when i try to modify it in my look and feel.  thanks so much~

    aiite, good night [morning, whatever, wherever whoever's reading this is from :D ]

  • i really how xanga is now. i think you should change it back. it messed up stuff on my site n i had to do it all over. it took a long time to do those things.

  • for one, I want to say thank you, I don’t mind the new xanga….

    but on the other hand, I can no longer open my page… that I just paid a year for premium.

    I get an error saying “Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=telakiniya Operation aborted” and I only have a choice to click “OK”

    After that I get to the windows page saying The page cannot be displayed.

    I’m not the only one having this problem I read on seanmeister’s that tdk is having issues too.  can you help fix this?

  • I jus LOVE the way Xanga is now…my codes work and Its my site is alittle faster..though i do tend to pound my head excessively at the wall when xanga eats up my entry and spits it into no mans land but its all good! Labz!

  • hmmm me having no idea wut u r talking about ^_^

  • but plz upgrade mine

  • WOW!!! DANG U GOT LOTTSA PROPZ!!! PLZPLZPLZPLZPLZ HOLLA ME BAQ!! U DANG COOL!!

  • I was curious if you could free http://www.fastonlineusers.com/.  It tells how many people are viewing your site.  Thanks. 

    -shannon

  • My modules are still not working. They look fine at first, then when my friends enter in to leave a comment, they appear brown. An ugly brown. Help?

    I appreciate your work on the xanga sites though. Thanks.

  • You said you were going to fix the time zone thing, so that time zones world-wide would show up correctly, well over a year ago. Obviously the problem isn’t as simple as it seems that is should be. It would be nice to have my evening posts credited to the same day I post them, but that is a minor annoyance.

    From time to time, seemingly innocent HTML that I add to my posts blows things up. I’m happy that you’ve added the secure mode that allows me to go in and fix the problems I’ve created. Before, I just had to bail out and wait for the problem to go away. That was a good addition, at least for people like me who know just enough XHTML to be dangerous.

    I would like to help with your BETA testing.

    James

  • Thanks for trying to work on the problems . my site is still messed but i can wait :) id be a beta testerrr :)

  • I wanna be a tater taster. I love taters..

    Were there changes made? I didn’t even notice.

  • help me UNDERSTAND LOL!

  • First off, I’d like to thank the Xanga team for all the hard work you guys do.  You rock.

    Secondly, I’m not sure why, but on my public page, I still have the olde calendar, and on my private page is the new one…  I actually like this setup, but I don’t think it was intended to be that way.

    Third, could you add Jippy.com to list of acceptable javascripts?  I just recently got a birthday counter there and I kinda miss it.

    Fourth, again, I’m not sure if this is a fluke or not, but I designed a skin for a friend of mine’s site, and her transparency still works perfectly.  (Her setup is actually tables with HTML filters to color the table fill transparent).

    Overall, good job.  My site works well, no big screwups, runs a lot faster, etc.  Though I can definitely see how having their long hours of work for the perfect look screwed up would piss so many people off. 

  • i used madd codes for my xanga and now half of dem don even work MY XANGAS SO UGLY NOW errrr please make it back to the way it was or atleast try and make the xanga be able to conform with our codes x

  • Hi John–

    I like the change. I see that my javascript is working. Whatever you, guys, are doing, it’s always for the Xanganians. You want us all to be happy and I am for that.

    Beta tester, if you explain it to me, I could probably join.

  • Some people are just incredibly rude.

    John, is it posibble to have the old calendar back and still be able to have the “oldest and newest posts option” without searching the calendar? Thanks.

  • Yes I like the speed and the new calender gets me to old pages fast.

  • mmm…yeah it’s sooo much faster..thanx for the update!!

    bree

  • lol, yay ^^; you understand. try to make it better soon as possible =]. i’m so happy you guys hear these things ^^;.

  • I love the changes! Thank you!

  • woohoo xanga got a makeover!! XD

  • thanks for trying to make it better, i dun think anyone uses the calendar though, at least not me. and i would like to hide the banners and search bar.

  • hey, you guys are doing a great job.  could you look into Tagboard as a trusted javascript site?  thanks!  :D

  • i had no idea how important transparency was until i lost it. but makeover looks good. just want my transparency back…lolz.

    props!

  • oh and i forgot to say the most important thing…can i be a beta tester too?

  • If you brought back something similar to the old calendar that would be great!

  • er… nevermind, maybe it just doesn’t work on my xanga.  heh heh ^^;;

  • ty for the new stuff x] lolzz i went to the other xanga n got my things transparent.. but not the title bars xT o well lolz.. i’m interested in being a beta tester! lolz..

    how do u put pictures into the comments like that? x.X

  • faster is always better… the improvements are fine, and you’ve done a great job.  I know it’s been mentioned over and over again, but I just wanted to add my voice regarding the old calendar (I prefer it myself!)

    But for us html-deficient xangans, a transparency option in the look and feel is very much anticipated.

    And put me down for the beta-testing… oh, and happy 2003, btw!

  • I still don’t notice a change in speed, but maybe that is because I have cable connection and everything is pretty much fast.

    Bummer about the calendars, but I’d rather have a stinky calendar than no Xanga because of server issues.

  • i rather enjoy the changes in xanga. .
    thanks for putting so much effort into it.

    xo.
    - h e i d i -

  • just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you guys for constantly working on upgrades, new options, and other nice things for us. it’s very much appreciated.

  • ugly slow xanga.
    i didnt think it would ever come to this.

  • if you block javascript you should block vbscript.

  • i cant hear music from my site anymore.. and i have premium

  • all of you need to chill and just let them do their job. dayum.

  • I’d love to be a beta tester…as a Premium user and non-Premium user, hehe

    Stacy

  • Could you please tell me why I am not able to post photo(s) onto my entries.  I figure that the “add image” link is there for a purpose.  However, my photo only shows up for a couple of hours then it goes away…

    -Thanks. 

  • It’s nice to see that you guys are always looking out for what’s best for the fellow members of Xanga, because like it was stated above.. If it wasn’t for you guys, there wouldn’t be a Xanga.  We’d be stuck using LiveJournal or Blogger.  But, we’re here… Because we love Xanga.   I know I do.  Granted, I’m not the hugest fan of the new calander layout, and in all honesty I think for the most part… Not many people even use the calander.  I know in the last year that I’ve been a member, I may have used it like… Once or twice.  That’s it. 

    I’m not the largest HTML guru, but I do know a few things.  And if people want to understand CSS and all that, there’s a website called LissaExplains, that explains how to do CSS coding and such.  Very helpful when people are trying to make their Xanga more appealing to their own eyes.  I can deal with the search bar, and I can deal with the banner.  Though like a few people have suggested, having the banner at the bottom of the page would be a lot nicer, but whatever brings the money in for you guys is what’s important.  As soon as I can afford it, my goal is to buy Premium.. But it’s just a matter of when I can afford it.  Between just moving out on my own, and paying for my wedding come this October is going to be fairly rough in the financial department. 

    Perhaps an option to wether or not you even want the calader to show on your blog would work?  I don’t know how much of a lag that would put on your servers, but it’s just a thought.  Happy blogging!

    . : o f f v o c a l : .

  • thnx!!!!!!!! can yoo add yescounter.com counters to come bak?? bc some ppl cant have okcounters bc they’re limited.. so i was wondering if yoo can look into that? thnx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • ..may b itz a bad time to ask but is there anyway you can block someone from subscribing to your your site and or coming to your site?..(lube).. just wondering b/c it would b a great feature and a BIG help..thankz`

  • I personally don’t have a problem with they way things have been changed.  In fact, I didn’t notice a whole lot at first, except for the calander and that things loaded faster….  So… :)

    But this is for some of the people that have been complaining…  do y’all not know that you can get rid of your banners if you buy premium?  It is only $25 for a year…  which is very reasonable, especially if your sites mean as much to you as you say they do.  Besides, the purchase is going towards the upkeep for our Xanga world, not something silly.  So why would you expect our lovely programmers to do something for you.. i.e. remove the banner ads, when you aren’t doing anything for them except complaining about something that they obviously spent time, effort and consideration on.

    Anyways, the world is a compromise.  We don’t get everything that we want, and if it took something as mediocre (no offense, John) as Xanga being revamped for you to realize it, then y’all that are bitching need to wake up.

  • John…

    You each need to give yourselves a warm and fuzzy hug! LOL okay, so don’t do that, but give yourselves a pat on the back.

    You have no idea how much it meant to me when you and marc stopped by my space to check out what I was talking about… and then to go and fix it for me too!  I’m forever in your debt… okay, so maybe not forever… but for a while anyway!

    I too am sick of the ignorant people posting about banners and ads… I mean REALLY people!  I don’t know of ANY free ANYTHING on the web that doesn’t have ads, and one of the main focuses for every free/paid services is that a benefit for paying is getting rid of the ads.  I’ve said it before, but I’m GLAD you guys “caught the cheaters”… of course, they’re all 12, and know nothing of real life, bah… I’ll stop. Before I start another rant!

    Anyway, I just wanted to thank you guys again… and again… and if there’s ever anything I can do by way of beta testing or what have you, please let me know.  I was a site monitor/admin for neopets.com for well over a year before 9/11 happened and things had to change… what I would give to get involved in another site!  Anything… k?

  • Thanks for listening, John.

    Your responsiveness alone helps to set Xanga apart from the rest of the gibbering throng.

    And please remember: I criticize because I love.  And also because I really, really, really did want to eat that ostrich.

  • oh wow….. ; ] thanx man!

  • just proppen prop me baq

  • dank yu~
    but i want that ad off my site
    it looks bad xT

  • I reiterate desire for a combo of the calendar formats – drop-down box for month/year, then show the month the way it was before. Or if that’s too hard on the servers, have it come up a week at a time… just something that lets people see several days at once, and whether there were posts or not.

    But I notice the annoying bolding of half the custom title bar that I complained about last time is gone… yay!!!

  • I just wanted to give you guys the proper credit you guys deserve. I know it must be hard to maintain to 42408593028592 different needs from people, but I feel you guys have done a great job. Thanks for providing us with great service. Hope everything goes as planned ! Best wishes for 2003.

    -Catherine

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