March 22, 2006

  • Xanga’s Eligibility Requirements

    Xanga recently took the strong step of shutting down many accounts which don’t meet our eligibility requirements.  Normally we would give notice ahead of time, and also let our users know what’s going on right away.  But in this case, we were unable to do either. 

    I cannot go into details here other than to say that it was something we had to do.  But I can finally say the following:


    • We’ve set up an Account Restoration application process here

    • If we approve your application, than your account will be restored immediately.
    Also, for the record – if we are unable to restore your account, than we will:


    • Email you an Archive of your xanga site

    • If you have a Premium account, we will give you a refund
    I am so sorry that we had to handle this situation in such an abrupt manner.  We greatly appreciate your bearing with us in this difficult time.  Here is that restoration application form again:
    http://help.xanga.com/contact/restoreapplication.htm

    Thanks,
    John
    CEO, Xanga

Comments (303)

  • number one

  • I’m not one of the ones affected by this (I hope), but thank you for the way you are handling this.  I’m sure the people who have gotten kicked off appreciate the archives and/or the chance to come back.

  • hey you know?
    ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
    i think it all sounds fair and good.
    and i like that you’re offering them the archives and a refund.
    that’s nice.

  • IBC root beer is awesome

  • What are eligilibity requirements again?  Three years and my memory has faded.

  • So…

    Although, I’m not one of the affected, I’d be curious to know what are the eligibility requirements?

  • lol I’m curious what got them kicked off

  • i am assuming if we can access our accounts we are not affecte? do we still need to ‘apply’? thanks for helping our safty, as i understand many ‘blog’ spaces are getting hit…THANK YOU!!

  • my mind drew a blank. what are the requirements again? blogging since 02, so this will be interesting to me lol.

  • And what about the bloggers who don’t know about this post?  I am advocating for Countiss, a new blogger who deserves a nicer welcome than to have her site discontinued for …for…WHY, exactly?  You haven’t explained anything at all.  Here is a comment I placed elsewhere, moments ago:

    Xanga needs to apologize for this nonsense, and fast.  There ought to be something on the home page, but last time I checked, nothing.  I’ve commented in the guestbook at Marc’s blog, and will do the same at John, Monsur, Janet, and Jon.

    The closure that pisses me off the most is their attack on Countiss.  A new blogger, she should be welcomed with open arms.  Instead, Xanga shits on her.  Xanga needs to apologize for this nonsense, and fast.

  • …? i dont get it man why are these accounts being shut down like tht….wt did they apparently DO…?…and i wanna know wt exactly the eligibility requirements are….so i dont get skrewed lol
    k seriously umm….wt are the requirements… 0_o
    well good luck w/ all of this
    ur doin a great job :D

    [ronak]

  • yeah… xanga needs to do a better job at explaining the requirements.

    Also, don’t just shut down people’s sites without warning.

    If you’re going to do something like this, let US have an opinion.

    Not to be rude or anything, but xanga is for us, the bloggers, right?

    Just my opinion.

  • yay. had my blog restored.

  • I agree. I like the way you are handling what amounts to a no-win situation.

  • I wasn’t affected by this, but I appreciate your listening to people.  pete

  • While I understand the nescessity of having to comply with and enforce the TOS – which includes the eligibility requirements, I feel that despite whatever pressure you were facing you should have given those affected at least a 24 hour notice before shutting down their sites and posting a statement on the main page before shutting down any sites. But then again I wasn’t there so I trust you guys did the best you could in the situation.

  • THANK YOU SO MUCH.

  • Do you need to apply if your site hasn’t been affected by this?

  • Wow. You know, some people have worked really hard on their sites. It’s good that you’re offering this site restoration thingie.

    But you know, it’s actually all those childrens’ faults. ><

  • I’m actually proud of you guys, it’s always annoyed me when people lied about their ages to get a site and said “Oh well they don’t care”. All those lawyers, must have been an issue though. Glad you have some back-up plans for the innocent. ttyl.

  • that stinks.

    hope all is well.

    after this is all back to normal you should check out cakalusa’s march 22nd 2006 entry. he has some amazing ideas for xanga that will surely make people flock to you.. and if you make some of his ideas only to premium users. people will be glad to pay.

    you cant honestly say the amount of ppl who get premium hasnt dropped since you gave away the rich text… just giving a thought on the matter.

  • This is a really stand-up thing to do under these circumstances. Good on ya.

  • It would be nice if you could explain in further detail what you mean by eligibility. My first guess would be sites with pornography, or those who are under 13.

  • yes, from what I know the elgibility requirements boil down to birthdaates that ween’t correct or underage bloggers accidently slipping through the networks… Though I do believe it was handled poorly and terribly underpublicized; this is why so many are leaving for ‘Myspace’ etc.

  • Oops, after reading the comments, now I understand. Good luck with everything.

  • so that’s what that wrongly addressed email was for…

  • gotta do what you gotta do… although I don’t think it’s your job to babysit these stupid underage kids, it’s time for parents to take the blame for not monitoring their children better.

  • I need details, What eligibility requirements did we breach that made security and “lawyers” step in! Hope you plan to post something on your home page.  

  • I am holding out for porn to be banned and hopefully someday you guys will be able to handle it..
    I know you have to do what you  have to do… although I have not been affected, at least you all are making amends and
    helping those that feel they were unjustly shut down.
    God bless you John, you and the entire crew…you do a lot of hard work and we just get to enjoy the pleasure while you are all
    working non stop behind the scenes.
    Tina

  • =(

    well, i guess you had to do what you had to do

  • Yeah, those of us kicked off wanna know why we got kicked off as well.

  • man, i guess no one read the eligibility requirements when they signed up.  But if it’s merely the age thing…does that mean the age u put on ur profile?  cuz out of humour, I put my year as 1900…guess I pass that underage thing huh?  Also, it does suck for those who had their sites shut down w/o any warning.  Posting something on the home page would be very helpful.  A million thanks to you guys for doing what you do cuz I know tons of ppl who are addicted to xanga.  Have u checked out the Xanga Whore blogring lately??  Hahaha  Let me just say, ever since they blocked xanga at my job, work has just not been the same…

  • thank you for your help, and im glad that you’re making sure people are old enough!!! its dangerous on the internet.. thank you.

  • i have the coolest xanga.

  • I hope i can get my site re stored cuz i wokred very hard on the site!!!

  • must be the age thing and content of the page. I’m just glad I’m old enough to do anything and I’m no terrorist threat! hehe :)

  • it doesnt even make any sense. not only do you NOT give any warning, but you’re not giving us an explanation. by saying there are many lawyers involved is a bullshit cop-out.

    i think those of us who are dedicated xangans deserve some sort of explanation. i had some friends who had been shut down for no “apparent” reason….

  • i stil dont undersatand, my friends site was shut down, nothing bad was on it, im for real whats wrong with you guys now

  • my account , motocrossmaniac666 has been shut down and i am very mad , i meet all the elegibility requirements , and my f’ing site was shut down , i dont think this is very fair , i understand that you are just trying to keep xanga safe , but i dont think 21 years old is under the elegibility requirements . I appreciate what you are doing , but i dont think it is fair

  • That’s like, what, $4 million in refunds? You can crash at my place if they take your house away.

  • Damn straight Keniiiiiiiiiiii

  • you are handling it well. and my opinion is the only one that matters. so.

  • Someone will eventually have to explain at some point…seems Xanga has upset quite a few of it’s paying members…..

  • When I wrote you and you told me you couldn’t talk about this right away, I figured that some outside agency had pressured you into this move and required you to do it without any warning.  What a bunch of misguided pseudo-moralistic bastards they must be.

  • dang, I leave for a few days and everything goes to hell!!

  • If you guys ever become big enough, you’ll be able to stand up to many lawyers. Hope you guys get some publicity for this!

  • Lol that was a dumb thing to do i’m sure everybody who got their site shut down said “aww this stinks,” and then made a new site.

  • things like this are the reason why i prefer and tend to live more at “smaller” sites like diaryland moreso than xanga and lj and crap…

  • Hey i was wondering how to report someone for being under the age of 13??? Comment back.

    wanting to know,

    Taylor

  • hey!!!! Thankyou for handling this umm… I just emailed them to see if I can get my old username back,but I want to know what caused yall to shutdown people’s sites. Like is it cuz of age becauz I am 13 and they shut my site down!

    thakyou please comment back,

    Shannon

  • finally you guys took care of this situation. in korea to register for some stuff online, they need your korean SS #.

  • to all you people complaining “oh you shoulda told us something” I have one question:

    CAN’T YOU FREAKING READ?!

    I quote:

    “Normally we would give notice ahead of time, and also let our users know what’s going on right away.  But in this case, we were unable to do either. 

    I cannot go into details here other than to say that it was something we had to do.”

    IN OTHER WORDS

    He can’t tell you why they did it for LEGAL reasons, I guess if you were more mature then you’d comprehend what you read before you go off.  Xanga would be better off without the majority of you teeny boppers who get babysat by your computer.

  • I actually got an email from Mary today explaining how to fix my friend’s account that was shut down. As soon as she calls me with her actual birthdate I can get her site back up.

    I wish this whole thing had been handled differently. My account wasn’t affect but many of my friend’s were. Caused a bit of a panic.

    It’s nice to know that someone really exists over there. Well anyway, thanks for getting it straightened out.

  • I still don’t believe you have posted the eligibility requirements yet. I was wondering if you could do that.

    Thanks.

  • This was handled very poorly,and i do not appriciate it,what if peaple don’t even know they did something wrong and you just shut they’re site down,not even letting them know that your going to shut it down?!? this is stupid you should atleast tell people your gonna shut it down before you actually do it!!!

                                                      -Unknown

                                            P.S. Don’t comment me!

  • DO NOT SPAM

  • um, what’s going on?

  • You owe us an explanation. We’ll be waiting. :)

  • This needs further explanation. What powers that be prompted a immediate shut down and can they do it again? Also, is the new Friends module secure within each person’s blog and only visible to that person or whoever posts in it or to the public at large?

    Thanks 

  • Glad to hear that this matter is getting taken care of. Only hate the way it was handled to start with.

  • Some of my subscribers who are above the age of 13 had their sites shut down. I’ll try to let them know about this if I can…

  • i am 44 years old.  my site was shut down.  is there a too old eligibility requirement?  how strange.

  • WHY do you shut down my xanga? I’m only a 8 year old girl. My sister helped me set up my xanga. I use xanga to communicate with people and upload my achievements. Recently I won some prizes and wanted to share with my friend, I found that I couldn’t. I did nothing wrong. What are the eligibility requirements that I offended? ANGRY ME!!!

    Now I have to use my brother’s  xanga to complain. It’s unfair! GIVE BACK MY XANGA!

  • What’s the Xanga’s Eligibility Requirements?????

  • I would like my site back plz~!!!!

  • can’t you imagine what you did just like washing out ppl’s precious memories from their brain!?

    really painful!! i am the affected one!! PLS have my site restored!!:(

  • can’t you imagine what you did just like washing out ppl’s precious memories from their brain!?

    it’s so painful!! i am the affected one, PLS have my site restored!! :(

  • what are the eligibility requirments

  • Hi John, I hope there’s a way to show day of birth on Xanga user sites, but hide the birth year.  I changed my birth year to 2000 in trying to cleverly hide my old age.  Then my Xanga site was gone haha.  Please restore it for me!!

  • what does this mean?

  • a heartfelt thanks here! i never realized how important my blog and subscriptions and subscribers were to me…

    any idea what happened to my profile pic?

  • thanks for the explanation. it makes it easier to swallow.

  • what do you mean by eligibility requirements?..

  • I was one of the ones affected, what did we do?  I’m the type that follows directions perfectly (and takes pride in that).  It would be really nice to have an explaination.

  • MY SitE WAS SHUt DOWN BY YOU PEOPLE ! i HAD tO MAKE A NEW ONE.tHAt’s A LOAD OF CRAP.iM 15,AND YEt MY XANGA SitE WAS SHUt DOWN.WHAt’S UP WitH tHAt ?!?

  • Its just too bad that the people who shut down the sites didn’t actually look at the profile of the poster… I had my old xanga for over three years starting when I was a high school FRESHMAN, and I think that (being a junior and constantly blogging about college thoughts and wishes) it could be inferred that I’m not ineligible.

    The reason I was considered such is that I had switched my age to be two years old simply because it was an option and a friend dared me to do it as a stupid joke… I was glad to see when I made RageofAnath, that it wasn’t an option anymore.

  • i hope u are getting rid of all those pornographers…..

    there is way way way to much x-rated material on xanga.

  • p.s. what are the eligibility requirements?

  • I am one of the people who got banned. I think that was the most riduculous thing you can do. Exspecially to people who haven’t broken the elgbility requirements. It made lots of people mad, annoyed and confused. I think you should of given a head notice to everyone.

  • p.s……myspace does…uh, STINK. we’ll use that word for now.

  • My site had been shut down (even though I wasn’t violating the eligibility requirements) and I really appreciate the Account Restoration application and that even if it doesn’t work, you’ll still e-mail the archive of my site because that was what I had hated losing the most since I had had my site for a while. Thanks.

  • what eligibility requirements?

  • I was hit by this. I set up this new account and wrote a post about what happened. What struck me is that (1) I wasn’t warned my site would be taken down, (2) I wasn’t notified after it was taken down (discovered the fact an unknown amount of time later when attempting to log in to post something), and (3) of all the kinds of content which might legitimately be offensive to anyone, mine (mostly technology related commentary, because I was (temporarily) too lazy to set up my own site) could probably have been the least. Even if this was “something we had to do”, a warning or even notification would have been nice. Some sort of heads up. I’m 27, by the way. Had my correct birth-year in there, at least.

  • First of all what exactly are the eligibility requirements? where can they be found? are they the same as terms of use? if not then that should really be specified and how is it that sites were shut down without notice at all or without explanation? thats pretty rude…and here they write that they “just HAD to do it”…there should be a good enough reason and I think those who’s sites got shut down are entitled to that reason.

  • Personally, I don’t think the apology is necessary.  If someone doesn’t meet eligibility requirements, that’s their fault -they’re either putting in faulty information, or they shouldn’t be here.  That is, unless, you guys at Xanga HQ did something stupid… in which case, apology is fine.

    I’m a stickler for grammar so I feel compelled to let you know that both times you used “than”, it should be “then”.  The former is used as a comparative word (Xanga is cooler than LiveJournal), while the latter is used for time (I did something stupid, then I blogged about it) or in uncertainties (if I can’t blog on Xanga, then I will blog on MSN Spaces).  Yay for grammar!

  • i am not affected. just wondering what the eligibilities are… well if you are saying the age eligibility, so it means that if anyone under 13, u could not or shouldnt go xanga? how about those said previously that they are actually above 13… my friends’ sites were shut down, they are above 13 and their posts were just ‘diaries’… i just have NO CLUE why this thing haapened to them..!
    Is it not “moral” to shut somebody’s xanga without informing or giving reasons? if they dont know what was wrong, how are they going to make themselves eligible in the future.
    i m not being mean, just too much questions in head.

  • yeah…thats what happened to my xanga…=(

  • yeah, i’m wondering whats up? I’m happy mine didn’t get hit, (but why would it) haha.
    love.

  • I appreciate Xanga’s concerns and keeping on top of things… but like so many others, I do not know why my daughter’s account was closed? I e-mailed Xanga about this, but was still not told WHY is was closed? I agree they should contact individuals prior to closing any account… and should explain why they are doing it.

    I’m giving one eProp for their concerns, but holding back on giving two… for their lact of notice prior to closing an account.

    Sincerely; Joyce… A, always involved and concerned parent! :o )

  • I appreciate Xanga’s concerns and keeping on top of things… but like so many others, I do not know why my daughter’s account was closed? I e-mailed Xanga about this, but was still not told WHY is was closed? I agree they should contact individuals prior to closing any account… and should explain why they are doing it.

    I’m giving one eProp for their concerns, but holding back on giving two… for their lact of notice prior to closing an account.

    Sincerely; Joyce… A, always involved and concerned parent!

    P.S… Sorry if this gets posted twice, I wasn’t signed in when I first sumitted it, so I sent it again. :o )

  • there needs to be an official statement on what exactly the elig. reqs. are. Plain and simple does the trick all the time

  • i hope my site can be restored!

    thx~

  • thanks!!!!

    i was one of the kicked-off. and here i thought someone had gotten me kicked off!!

    i simply created a new account (so i could tell my friends that i had gotten kicked out), but i switched to blogspot for actual updates. it was a bit disconcerting just going online one day and finding my entire journal shut down with no chance of restoring it (except for the bit from google’s and msnsearch’s caches). fortunately, my photos are not on xanga’s servers, but it was hard to swallow that all my thoughts and writings were gone forever.

    i suspect i got kicked off for misstating my birthday. i had the date listed as whatever the latest year was (2004? 2005?). of course, i doubt a toddler could write what i did. or maybe that says something about my writing….. ;)

    hope to be back online again soon!

    previously http://www.xanga.com/glowingstar71

  • Sheesh, whiney-butts…people need to read the TOS
    and stfu!

    I dig on the pr0n, it should stay, hey, hey, hey, hey. I haven’t intentionally looked for pron yet… 0.o …but the ones I’ve wandered upon have all been pretty explicit on being over 18 and ‘if you’re offended…blah blah’ which is good enough for government, so it’s good enough for me.

    Thing I’m wondering about in the TOS is the, “impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Xanga official, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity” … there seems to be a group of people that openly do just that…not that I care, just pointing it out. Are y’all gunna shut them down next, or is this like that yahoo user created room thing a while ago?

  • Well, ok i get it now but you didn’t have to shut my m8s and my xanags down. We didn’t do anything wrong =[

  • well…for now i still like xanga more than myspace. however…i’m a little turned off by the friend invite thingy…perhaps because i don’t understand the purpose of it?  friends–subscribtions–same boat?

  • ¨ä¹êelgibility requirements §Y«YÂI¡H

  • what does it mean not meet requirements?

  • I am very upset right now.  Today (03/22/06) I was officially kicked out of Xanga and I still have no reason why.  The official phrase is  that I violated Xanga’s “eligibility requirements.”  I have no idea what that phrase means (because Xanga won’t tell anyone), but today I finally got a letter from them saying that they were forced to take drastic action “due to safety concerns” for the people on Xanga.  Evidently I am threatening the safety of other bloggers.  John put up his public announcement above which he admits purposely leaves out any details and thanks people for supporting HIM while HE went through this trying time.  
     
    I’ve read through the comments of all the Xanga bloggers here at the end of John’s announcement.  There’s an obvious thread that runs through many of the bloggers’ minds:  Xanga cleaned house and got rid of all the perverts and pedophiles.  (That would be me evidently.)  Many expressed great  relief that Xanga is protecting them  (from me and others like me).  
     
    So without any notice, any proof, and absolutely no details, Xanga has placed a humiliating sign on my former web site, ruining my Xanga name (which I am now too ashamed to tell you).  Do you know how I found out I’d been kicked out of Xanga?  All my friends and family who called me after going to my blog and reading that sign announcing to the world  that I’d done something so terrible Xanga had to kick me out. 
     
    Then to top it all off, today I just got a notification from PayPal stating that my premium membership was cancelled by Xanga.  John made a big point in his announcement above saying he would refund everyone’s money.  Well, he didn’t refund mine.  All I got was a notice from PayPal that my Xanga account was cancelled.  But absolutely no money was refunded.  I’ve only been a blogger at Xanga since 10/07/05..  I paid the premium dues for a full 12 months of service and only got 5 months. 

    Above, John said he would send archives of all my blog entries.  Where are they?  And what am I supposed to do with them?  Will they crash my email system? 
     
    John also said in his announcement that if people will fill out a form, they will consider their application and possibly reinstate people.  What he didn’t say is that the form will ask people for their full name and birthdate.  In these days of identity theft, I’m very cautious about giving out that information, espeically over the Internet. People have to meet my “eligibility requirements” to get that information.  And after the way Xanga has treated me this week, they just don’t qualify.   
    And by the way….did any of you reading this have to give John your full name and birth date to get an account here at Xanga?  I just reregistered so I could post this comment.  It did not ask for my full name with my birthdate.  Only my email and my birthdate.  I guess they only want to know the full names of the perverts. 
     
    I’m so embarrassed, dumbfounded, angry, so….so….I can’t even come up with the words to describe it.   Everytime I go to my site to see if they changed it back yet and I see that horrible sign, I just die inside. 
     
    Here’s the kicker….in reality I’m a 51-year-old Christian housewife who loves to crochet.  And I am not a pervert.   I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before.  Have you?  It’s awful. 
     
    I spent most of tonight crying and sending off more letters to Xanga which I’m sure they won’t answer.  And the weird part is I STILL don’t know what I did that was so horrible that Xanga can’t even say the words out loud or in writing.  They just make these vague statements that imply all sorts of unimanginable things.   
     
    I’ll miss blogging with my circle of lady friends and fellow Christians and crocheters.  And I’ll miss my little yellow blinky lights. 

    Goodbye Xanga.  

  • At the bottom of every xanga page I have seen is a link titled “terms of use”, which points to page covering terms of use

    What would be useful, though, would be some indication of what caused the shutdown.

  • Several bloggers have made reference to the terms of use and agreement to use Xanga.  Who can tell me which one of those rules I have broken?  Xanga certainly won’t tell me which one I broke. 

    Many people are quick to assume I must have broken at least one of the rules.  There’s an implication that because I was kicked out of Xanga I did something wrong.   And it must have been so terrible that they kicked me out.  And that is exactly my point.  It is wrong to accuse someone without proof.  It is wrong to purposely hurt someone’s reputation.  I’ve read those rules.  There are some pretty horrible things in there.  Like stalking, harrassing, spamming, impersonating…in other words putting people in danger.  Which is what Xanga said is the reason people had to be kicked out.  “Due to safety concerns.” 

    So thank you very much for pointing out where the rules are posted.  Now please tell me which rule I broke. 

  • its good your kicking off some ppl casue there are way to many questionable sites with underaged kids

  • Gotta believe that you had good reason to shut a bunch of them down.  But I felt like a dolphin caught in a tuna net.  Still can’t undestand what we did that “broke the rules.”

    Thanks for the way back.  Now I’ll see if we get accepted.  You don’t have to do it but some further explaination would be nice.

    On behalf of TuDogs …

  • Cut and slash and leave em a-floating. If they are not playing by the rules, their loss.

    Keep up the great work!

    Sail on… sail on!!!

  • Gotta believe that you had good reason to shut a bunch of them down.  But I felt like a dolphin caught in a tuna net.  Still can’t undestand what we did that “broke the rules.”

    Thanks for the way back.  Now I’ll see if we get accepted.  You don’t have to do it but some further explaination would be nice.

  • I am very suspect of a reason that one “just has to do it” where there can be no consideration given to the victim.  The fact that you would deliberately not give any advance notice or give them a chance to rectify any eligibility problem leads me to believe you might have done the right thing (at least by your lawyers) but not in the right way.  Anything that is done without consideration to those affected is done in the wrong way, regardless of the justification.  I am very disappointed in you and now I have to say I don’t trust you to do the right thing.  I will not recommend others to Xanga any more.

  • i thought it was just a rumor  So what’s the problem—they’re MySpace enough???

  • You never “have to do it” if it includes being inconsiderate.  And it was definitely inconsiderat not to tell people ahead of time that you were shutting them down.  And it is inconsiderate to not give any reasons before and especially after.  If you can’t give a reason after the fact, it’s only because you don’t want to give a reason.  And that is inconsideration to the n’th degree.  You have lost my respect.  I will not recommend Xanga to anyone else again.

  • Ohhh strange strange hope you guys can restore me …

  • Oh that is ok John.  Just never shut down my blog.

  • What is eligibility requirements???

  • It’s good to hear that you get rid of underage posters. Good job xanga!

  • I’m pretty sure the elegibility requirements are clearly posted when you sign on to Xanga. I think it’s part of the thing you have to say “I agree” to when you join. Am I the only one who actually read all that stuff, including the requirements?

  • what are the elegibility requirerments!?

    me

  • just enforce your TOS… leave a note on the front page telling everyone to RE-READ what they agreed to and tell them you all are going to enforce it for a change… it’s easy!

  • I think everyone complaining about eligabilty requirements are ridiculous. If there is an age requirement it’s pretty straight forward. If you sign up and lie about your age, your own fault IMO. If you dont want people to know your age, HIDE IT.

  • AT LEAST ,POST REQUIREMENT OR WARNING

  • Ok explain what your requierements are, I didn’t do anything wrong and you shut me down. Explain why? What made certain people fall into the “Shutting Down Category”?

  • Xanga very rarely shuts down sites so if they did it without any notification there obviously was a very good reason for it. Looks like Xanga is dealing with a little bit of hot water…if that’s the case, it’s no surprise..you had to see that coming one day!

  • Now don’t go and shut down my site for that comment..I’ve been here 5 years..almost as long as NFP!

  • Are we ever going to get an explination as to what the requirements are?? I didnt have mine shut down but if peoples sites are just getting shut down I dont want mine to be next just because I was doing something that I didnt realize was wrong..
    Thanks for telling us as much as you did!!!

  • If thats got rid of a lot of the underage bloggers -well done Xanga!

    BUT…

    Surely this should be posted, or at least a comment left, on Xanga’s front page, rather than waiting for it to be on the “Featured Content” page?

    For all those saying “What elgibility requirements?” Did they not read the Terms of Use before ticking the box to say they had read them?

    Don’t just tick the box, some unscrupuless person could have put in “I agree to pay you 50 dollers a week by ticking this box” -and you agreed to it!

    ALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINT!

  • Now what’s really going to suck is having to delete all those accounts people made to come here and whine about their other one being shut down :P

  • Thanks for stopping by John..I was actually kidding..I didn’t think you’d shut me down considering I’ve left not so nice comments before and I’m still HERE! I just tell it like I see it…in a polite fashion of course!

    I’m sure that whatever IS going on you will tell us in due time..like when all the lawyer schtuff is done and over with. I personally think it’s a good idea to get rid of the underage, less than savory, harassing sites..I know that it can’t be totally policed since it is a huge site but I’d really hate to see Xanga go the way of “some” other sites.

    I love it here even if I don’t always agree with some of the things that go on..otherwise I wouldn’t still be hanging around..being an old bat and all!

  • I assume you’re talking about moderators which I’ve seen work effectively at other sites…these sites were journal, forum based. Would it work for a journal based site though is the question. I personally think it’d be a great idea!!!

  • hey so yeah I think you shoud’ve warned them before you just went and shut it down!I mean seriously it’s not fair to people under 13 to just have their site shut down!anyways and I still don’t see a reason for shutting it down!bye

  • what are the eligibility requirements??

    laurennn.

  • ah.. finally some notice

  • how come xanga said i can make a new xanga from this information can you tell me why i can make a new one i try 10 time but no use

  • i was affected so i hope that the link you gave me works :) but if it doesnt then ill try and start over with a second account :( which is probably the one i have to use to post this :(

  • Mmm. Instead of coming on here and telling you how wrong you are for running your site..
    I’m going to say thank you for taking these measures, whatever exactly they were, and to whatever extent they go..
    If someone has violated the agreement we all made when we signed up, they should have to suffer the consequences.

  • So many people here are congradulating you on closing down a bunch of sites.

    This is so stupid!!!!
    What if somebody was just faking their age for a joke?? I mean for a couple of days I had it say I was born in 2006 for a JOKE.
    What’s the big deal if little kids do Xanga ANYWAY????

    I can see the point in shutting down sites displaying pornography that can be pretty offensive to people (I stumbled across a couple of those sites while blogging and was flabbergasted you let those sites exist) but–PLEASE–underage?? What if it’s just some old fart trying to seem younger??
    Like in my other comment…this situation was handled terribly.
    So many people didn’t get a warning, but when they tried to visit their site all they saw was “they have broken the eligbility requirements” and were left to ponder what the HECK they did wrong.

    If you are able to wipe out millions of sites with the click of a button, why couldn’t you have sent out an email or SOMETHING to people warning them what was going to happen??
    This is the most retarded thing ever.

  • I just did a search. All those porn sites still exist. THEY’RE the ones you should be getting rid of, NOT people underage!!

  • what would eligibilty thingamjigs be- i got my site shut down, but am getting it restored

    i’m just curious what it is

  • oooooo ok thats why. so whats eligibility requirements?? but thanks for having a resoration thingy. bye!

  • I am concerned because one of the workers for Xanga has deleted my
    Xanga and I am wondering if you can PLEASE put it back up the way it was. I
    am asking this because I have put ALOT of work into this website. I
    put a background,music,and alot more things. I have put many blogs on
    there and those are small memories…. like a little diary. So pretty
    much, you have now deleted my “online diary”, my xanga , my hard work, and
    all my freinds on there. When I checked to see if anyone blogged or
    said anything in my chatterbox, it said Shayal’s site has been shut down
    for violation of Xanga’s eligibility requirements… I am wondering what
    I did wrong. When i saw that, i thought Xanga’s site was down, but i
    found out that it was not and i got very mad! I am asking you one more
    time… please put my Xanga site up again just how it was….. here is
    my Xanga link : http://www.xanga.com/shayal . If you need my user name and
    password please e-mail me back and ask for it.

    This is my other e-mail that i use so please reply to this e-mail
    adress.

    P.S. if you do put my Xanga site back up just like how it was… then
    thank you very much. I always go on Xanga and i try to blog daily. Now
    i cannot because some one has deleted my account. Please do put it back
    up.
    Thank you very much for reading this e-mail and hopefully doing what
    I ask.

  • Thank you so much for restoring my site…. It means so much to Lilly. Kathleen Gosselin

  • How long does it take after I submit an application?

  • Hey I have a question that is unrelated to your post.

    Not to long ago, you were working on a way to make the xanga urls cleaner, so my page became http://www.xanga.com/username instead of the long complicated url it used to me. I was wondering if you could make that apply to individual entrys also. For example, and entry on a Blogger page made in March 2006, would look like this: “username.blogspot.com/2006/03/title-of-post.html” Could you make xanga posts do that? (Instead of the big and messy url they are now? i.e. http://www.xanga.com/john/461646556/xangas-eligibility-requirements.html <—that big # between the username and the title.)

    thx.

  • it’s not even about age, i had my correct age up (17) and i still got deleted

  • Sure, shut down a few sites, don’t give any explanation as to why, and then when I get harassed and my xanga name hijacked by some religious fundamentalist retard over six months ago and I send you several emails about it, you guys are mum. Seems there is a double standard in the Terms of Service/eligibility requirements page. Claiming freedom of speech was a cop-out. Freedom of speech covers things like neo-nazis, who promote hate speech, which is illegal. Letting that jerk-off get away with harassing my readers after he hijacked my name was BS. I suppose after I’ve made this comment, you’ll close my site down to punish me. Well then, if you are going to close me down, do it. I don’t really care, because its obvious you guys are in it just for the $$$. That much was obvious after you refused to answer ANY of my complaint emails. I didn’t even get a form letter, I was totally ignored. Too bad you guys can’t live up to your Terms of Service agreement, and yet, you expect your customers to do so. Bah!

  • VIOLATION of FREE SPEECH MY ASS!

    xanga is privately owned entity and it provides a forum for people to speak for free.  and not for free..for premium users.  It gets it’s money from advertising, and as a bonus provides a free service to many people.  but to claim that people have the RIGHT to xanga is completely ridiculous.

    i hate how people abuse the “freedom of speech” and have NO IDEA what it actually means.  It means you can say what you want without fear of government punishment or violence. that’s IT!  it doesn’t mean a privately owned service can’t shut you down for whatever reason.  It has the right to shut you down just out of PURE WHIM!  that’s the owner’s right.

    You aren’t BORN with a right to a XANGA SITE.  ridiculous.  people need to be more informed before they protest in the name of a freedom they don’t even fully understand. 

    I fully support XANGA’s right to do with access to its services as it sees fit…for whatever reason.  Of course, the user’s satisfaction should be a major concern of the company…but it is not an obligation and certainly not a legal obligation. 

  • why did you need to shut down some accounts?  i’m just curious.

  • i think the rules are pretty straight forward and anyone who claims to know have been informed of the rules and guidelines simply clicked “i agree” and didn’t read it. so when they’ve broken the rules and cry foul, i say, shame on them for not reading. you can’t exactly hand feed everyone every step of the way. i give you kudos for sticking by your own rules and enforcing them. the reactivation process is a good way to give them a second chance.

  • The eligibility requirements shut down two or three of my sites already…so far. I can’t say I like the things you guys are doing but I understand why. You have good intentions so thats ok.

  • …STILL I PUT A LOT OF WORK INTO MY SITE AND THAT TOOK 4EVER !!!! GET RID OF THE PORNO SITES INSTEAD OF PEOPLE THAT ARE UNDERAGE! GET RID OF THOSE SITES AND THEN UNDERAGE KIDS DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!!!! AND I WAS GOING TO BE THIRTEEN IN JUNE! WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BTWEEN 12 AND 13 HUH?…NOTHING BUT DAYS!!!!!!!

  • Ok.. so you’re the head cheese on Xanga.

    Here’s my deal: What’s up with the new Beta Profile thing? I can’t figure out why Xanga would be taking steps to form a Yahoo 360 style page and that they would stay mum about the purpose of this feature.

    This is one reason I PREFER Xanga to MySpace (And Yahoo 360).. it had a distinct purpose as a Blogs ONLY site. I don’t want 400 people sending me friends invites. Is it a way to guage popularity because – personally – I thought that’s what Featured Content was for.

    What’s the deal Xanga team??????????

  • Thank you. My account had been shut down but now, it is re-opened. But I still feel confuse what requirement I had not met. So, where could I see the details of the requirement? Or, just tell me what did I do wrongly? Then I could prevent it happen again. Thank you so much………….^_^

  • whoa thanks for explanation! my mate’s xanga got shut down for unknown reason and she has been freak out about that! but hey… the link http://www.xanga.com/john/461646556/xangas-eligibility-requirements is dead…

  • CORRECTION: never mind the link… i dunno the exacy eligibility requirements… ya could have say it in the post eh?

  • by the way, my friend’s xanga is wunyin0203; she told me that she filed the restoration! plz do something! thnQ! (bow)

  • they should compensate you…..lol..$$$$

  • YES!!!! PLZ “DON’T” SHUT DOWN ANYONE’S XANGA SITE WITHOUT WARNING!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SO RUDE & ANNOYING!!!!!

  • Thanks so much!!!! Hope i can get back my account!~

  • Thanks for the prompt reply!  Btw, what eligibility requirements are?

  • It’s good that you guys are finally doing something about it!
    Can you also please check the emails I have sent you guys??? I have paid $4 twice this month to Xanga *one by e-cheque and one by Paypal instantly* and I only got one month’s worth of premium. I have forwarded the receipt I got from Paypal re: the e-cheque payment. I want someone to reply back and let me know what’s going on!!!
    I am sorry to say that it’s not the same anymore like before, you guys would reply back to any query. *shakes head*

  • John, this unprofessional behavior is the reason why other blogging services like LiveJournal and MySpace are beating the hell out of Xanga. I had a good number of my friends lose their Xanga account because of “elegibility” requirements for no good reason. I know this can’t have anything to do with this age bullcrap because they’re all college students! This is just a cop-out excuse.

    I am going to go out on a limb and say that Xanga was hacked. This has happened before and there are many security holes still in Xanga that people know about and use on a daily basis. Would you like me to publish them for you? You should know about them already, I’ve emailed you guys many times but received no reply and Xanga did nothing to fix them.

    The fact that people here are losing several years of journal entries that they entrusted to you for so many years to only get a shoulder-shrug of a non-answer smacks of an incredible character deficiency and lapse in ethical judgement.

    Suffice to say, my friends will not be using Xanga anymore because of this. You took forever to make an official response and a pathetic one at that. Livejournal doesn’t lie and hide information from their users.

    I hope a smart lawyer out there turns this into some kind of class action for those premium users who were treated no differently. It would be fitting justice.

  • I have submitted the application yesterday, but how long does it take to restore my xanga????

    I really want to get back my xanga…can anyone answer me?

  • Thankyou Xanga, after reading your requirements and writing to you informing that I have not violated anything as far as this site is concerned, you restored my site and all of the contents that was posted. Thankyou for doing this is such a timely manner and not having me to start from scratch.

  • i dun think shut down the user’s xanga SUDDENLY is a good methol !
    you can notice people first !
    all memories hv gone…………………………………………

  • and i do really want to know …what are the “elegibility” requirements !?
    i didnt write any bad words in my xanga,,,

    i hope i can get back my account as soon as possible

    thanks..

  • thank you very much for the restoration ~~~!!!!

  • PINEAPPLE

  • thats bullshit!!!
    i OWNEDD fakesmilex__lyts and it worked hard making those layoutss.
    well your justt doing your job

  • I laud your efforts at policing the site and keeping minors from it. It shows a sense of community responsibility. It’s too bad that the media who are so bent on selling things and could care less about things like morality do not follow suit.

    Do youse guys make a lot of money with this site? 

  • My account is restored, thanks. I had entered my birthday as “4/1/1900″ which would make me 106 years old. WHAT’S WITH THIS AGE-RELATED DISCRIMINATION? On what basis do you decide that a 106-year-old can’t post to Xanga, and if someone represents to be doing so, that you can make the assumption that “oh, he must be lying about his age, because 106-year-olds DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE THE INTERNET or something like that? Can you say LAWSUIT? This is dumb!

    Okay, fine. I “lied” about my age. That’s because “age” was a field on my PROFILE page, and a profile is a persona you post to the world. Since I had the option of either SHOWING or HIDING my birthday, I chose to “show” it but in a funny manner. Certainly this field did not seem to be a core piece of information that Xanga would use for determining my eligibility to use this account.

    Anyway, as I recall upon creating my account (or at least, this happens with just about every other site out there), I needed to check a box promising that I’m over 13 when signing up. And isn’t that enough? Why does Xanga need my exact birthday? If I want to change the birthday field as presented to public view for humorous purposes, how does this make me ineligible for an account? And as I said I’m 106 years old, not 12-and-a-half.

    If indeed this is due to recent media paranoia about little kids being exploited on the ‘net, Xanga needs to have a bit more of a spine. Cancelling accounts where the birthday field is not within range is like shooting every person who happens to be wearing a red shirt on suspicion of being a communist.

    Anyway, I’m really just 87, and I’ve updated my account to reflect that. Please don’t cancel it again or I’ll be contacting… I mean, I’ve already contacted a pack of mad lawyers and I’ll be unleashing them to descend upon you with legal fury and I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee! Amen! Word.

  • Hey! I found your site. I’ve subcribed so I”ll probably post more often.

  • well what i wanna know is why you did shut them down…. like was it cuz we were to young, did we say sumthin?? thats what i wanna know and i really didnt get any help this it dosnt tell me any thing but we didnt reach the elegibility requirements. i wanna know what they r so i can fix what i did and not do it again cuz both my sites got shut down and i had to make a new one…

                                                                                         thx

  • Is there something that can be done about the volume of music / sounds on the site? Can you make it so we can adjust the music file volume in our CLAF? Thanks a bunch!

  • Ok, that is scary. But yeah, what are eligby requirements? That is a huge reilef because all my friends sites have been getting shut down, and I thought It was gonna be me next!

  • I think this is a great idea in theory, but not telling anyone that there will be serious repercutions (sp?) was a low blow.

    And this is a different topic, but can you explain to me exactly why I’m paying for premium?

  • Posted on my journal on deviantart(The username of my account that got deleted is Rowd149):
    “Unless I get my Xanga back by the end of this weekend, I’m done with them. THis is so f****** annoying, it turns out they deleted my account (and, apparently, a bunch of others) because we were “underage” (13). Which I’m not. Seriously. Pisses me off to no end, especially since I used that site as my main way of communicating with my rl friends outside school… BS. That’s all it is. And now I don’t have a blog >_O About a year of journaling down the tubes, you know? Crap. >_< This isn’t making my day an ounce better…”
    I know this is neither constructive nor is it going help the situation at all… But I hope the bastards who run this site are happy.

  • That’s really thoughtful of you to give the restoration link and whatnot. ^_^ Good work.

    <3<3

  • I filled out the restoration thing two days ago and haven’t heard anything back yet. But other people’s sites have already been restored.

    I don’t understand why mine hasn’t been restored yet if other people’s have been.

  • Huh?

  • Kudoos

  •   Mine was one of the sites shut down. One day I was on it then the next I couldnt even log in! I started jumping to conclusions. Did someone hack into my account? Did I do something wrong when I was on the other day? Then I find out I dont meet the “requirements” all the sudden? If you dont want my services I’m fine with that but I think it was handled unprofessionally and you did not HARDLEY give enough reason as to why you did this or what it means.

  • i am over the age of 13, i must have put the wrong year, it said 8/11/93 when i am 8/11/92 please help me.

    CaRtEr

  • So, what are the elegibility requirements?

  • Hey, I guess you would be good to talk about security breaches, so…

    I have a hacker and was wondering if you could return the site to me without shutting it down.  He gets it through E-Mail so I would need that reset to Haymakers9th@aol.com if you would.  He aslo hacked a friend of mine’s site (turned out my fault), so if you could return that one too.

    I hoped you would take interest because the guy who hacked it is a clear violator of the terms of use, as his previous actions involved leaving insulting and profanity ridden comments on people’s sites under an anonymous name.  Also, I think he might be 11 years old (yes you do have to be stupid to be hacked by an 11 year old), younger than the Xanga cutoff age.

    Well my site is Haymakers9th and my friends is bratboy1413. If you need any further proof that I am the original owner of Haymakers9th let me know.

    I just thought that if you’re going to block the IP address I might as well get my site back from it all.  Thanks for your (hopeful) assistance.

    -Haymaker
    (The real Haymaker, Charles Steele, original Haymakers9th operator)

  • give me back my xanga please? T.T ive sent a restoration account 2 days ago already. wha i miss it badly, just because of some lame misbehaving kids you just hadd to assume all of us were like this. i for one worked hard on my site and i written everything my thoughts, dreams and my life. and now suddenly its like i threw it in the ocean. im really dissapointed. i really want my xanga back. >.<

  • thankies xanga. i hope you understand that this site, my xanga means more to me then words can explain. it has many values and it is priceless to me.

  • my username is MilkyStar. x.X

  • for you guys who don’t know, the eligibility requirements are that you must be 13 or older. most other sites also have a 13+ age requirement, it’s perfectly reasonable. they haven’t enforced that requirement until now, which they should be enforcing, but xanga should have given people notice before, alot of people were confused on why their accounts were suddenly shut down.

  • wat the crap happened?

  • Yeah , a lot of my friends sites were shut down fro thee elgibility requirments because they hadn’t reached 13 yet. I understand though, but all of my friends will turn 13 in a few months or even a month, so they’ll be back for xanga later.

  • i was tryin to set a record for longest xanga, and so i tried to get back on, what do i find? my site been shut down so i had to make dis one

    oh well

    fugheddabadit
    peace

  • Thank you….wish all the things go better! 

  • my page is being weird..
    it gives a prompt to log into “bruinwalk.com” everytime it loads…HELP

  • What the heck!!! CAN YOU JUST PLEASE TELL ME WHAT eligibility requirements ARE!!! My gosh it takes a rocket scientist to freaking figure this out!

  • You would think in this entry that you made, it would say what they were!

  • i think it’s hilarious that most of these angry people can’t spell.  Anyway my site was shut down and i applied for restoration about 3 days ago, but haven’t heard back yet.  Please restore my account soon.. I really miss it.  And for those who thought that our sites got shut down because we were underage or lied about our age.. i am WAY over 13 and had my correct birth year and everything.  It sucks that people think it had to be our fault.  I know that it was a mass shut down, but I just don’t understand how innocent ones like me got caught in it. 

  • The Xanga team needs to revise and find a new method of verifying someone’s age. Writing an program/algorithm to search people’s birthdays and commanding it to shut down the site isn’t the way to go. You can do a verification of age by credit card, but people will voice their concern over their privacy. Also, you have to be 18 years of age to obtain a credit card. You can hire people to read Xanga blogs all day to determine whether the person is of age or not. I’m sure with the demographics of people who uses Xanga, you won’t have a problem finding people who already do that as a hobby. However, that’s expensive human resources that you might not be able to afford unless you can accept legitimate volunteers to do the job for you in return for full benefits of premium users, perhaps? Anyway, I, along with a group of my friends, have been affected by this move to shut down accounts with any prior warnings. I’m assuming it was because I set up the account with the birthdate at 2003. Do you really think a 3 year old can set up an Xanga on their own? The common sense is by far nonsense.

    Xanga, as much as I like to use your services, you guys definitely made a big boo-boo out of this.

  • what are the eligibility requirements and why cant you go into details about it?

    i would really like to know why you shut them down since it was my site they shut down.

    =(

    court

  • hey

    i found your site just looking for freinds

    luv ya loads

    comment back please

    Ashley

  • my site wasnt effected, but i think what you guys did was right. Yes, some people didnt meet the eligibility requirements, xanga did correctly to shut them down.
     However xanga should have been able to somehow contact the person/persons using the site. Without notice of the shutdown, the user perhaps thought that their site was hacked, or somehow abused. If they had recieved some kind of warning, then the user would have been less anxious about what happedned to their site.

    i respect the way xanga has handled this situation, but a small suggestion would be to have a breif explaniation on why the site was shut down

    ~thanks

  • YOU!!!! Yes, you people who are congratulating them for the way of handling the “problem”. Do you even realize what you’re saying!? Despite the utter CRAP they’ve been giving us, the truth is that Xanga shut down several legitimate blogs, who met every requirement of the TOS, and with even some PAYING XANGA to use the premium services, WITHOUT ANY PRIOR WARNING!!!! Can you even comprehend how horribly this was handled? If myspace or Livejournal did something like this, do you think they’d get away with it? WITH A PAT ON THE BACK, NO LESS!!! Think about what you’re saying. Xanga doesn’t deserve to be congratulated; this is an act of GROSS miscompetence and an EXTREME lack of foresight on their part.

  • DAMN YOU!!!!

  • Would be nice if Xanga tossed off the people who go around posting long replies that have nothing to do with the subject posted. I got a couple of those on religion and they got my site off a group site that I subscribe to. Just arbitrarily posting stuff. Drives me bloody sodding wankers.

  • i’m glad that you guys are doing this
    cuz there has been some people signing up multiple accounts and harassing people with those accounts.
    thanks a lot

  • Since the eligibility requirements are closely-held xanga secrets, is there any chance you could post something about how long this restoration process will take? Now, before someone so helpfully points out that the TOS says you must be 13 years old, I will state that I my age is several multiples of 13 and it was terminated, so there must be more to it. I also realize there are restrictions on content type, but I don’t see where I violated anything there either. Several other posters to this thread have pointed out that they, too, are far older than 13 and had their accounts terminated.

    I too don’t think “John” or “Mary” or anyone else deserves a pat on the back for the way they’ve gone about doing whatever it is they think they’ve done.

  • HEY JOHN. how do i get this profile upgrade off my profile. i want my old one back

  • LOL nevermind

  • will they email me back?

  • can you [eventually] inform us of these eligibility requirements to prevent future problems? not that I was affected?

  • i am starting a fite against u retarts. how can u make xanga be at  lease 13? well,this fite im strting,its about making xanga not be at lease 13.so fuck u all

  • so i heard it was due to age requirements. but people may just lie and pretend to be younger than they actually are. i mean the vice versa happens all the time, faking to be older. so who’s to judge

  • Greetings,
    Could you post something on why I haven’t been able to post any photos today, and not very easily during the past week? Other friends have had the same problem. Thanks

  • *sigh* this really did bad for my friends’ and my joined site for our crew… so wrong -_-

  • I wish that there was some more information as to why it was shut down. My friends and I had a “group Xanga”–a forum to which we all had the password and would post announcements of get-togethers and news as we’ve gone our seperate ways since College. When it was shut down, none of us knew why except that it was an Eligibility thing. Any thoughts? Comment me.

  • hey, this comment has nothing to do with eligibility rights, but i noticed that sites that have blink boxes don’t seem to work anymore……………….. is this just my computer, or is this a problem on the xanga server???

    please get back to me…………….

  • This is neither here nor there.  I do think you should delete the links to the sites you shut down if your not going to restore them.  I read something about how if you shut down a site you created it shuts down the links and everything.  It would make it easier for those whom go blogging and look and the links are still there.  This is kind of confusing for now.  Trying to figure it all out.  I dont know whether or not to post what to meet the requirements.  I will hopefully figure it out I hope.

  • Good evening.

    I wrote the Account Restoration Form 2 times already, one 3 days before, one 6 days before.
    now it is one week after i first reflect my voice to you. Unfortunately right now i still got ZERO REPLY either is xanga going to restore my site or even did xanga received my application.
    I hope it is happening the latter one that the Account Restoration Form is somehow malfunctioning or something else. I post here my Application for restoration, i think at least it can be seen by xanga’s staff. (as all of you can see it here.)
     
    Your email address: dennis10113@hotmail.com
     Type it again: dennis10113@hotmail.com
    Username: yau_SuperH2O
    Last Password: *w****1*
    (8 digits, as you are the administrator you must know it, i write here two digits for identification)

    Reason:
    Dear sir/madam,

    i found i cannot get into my site
    xanga.com/yau_superh2o

    it appears that
    “yau_SuperH2O’s site has been shut down for violation of Xanga’s eligibility requirements…”

    however i didn’t modify anything from my site otherthan writing diaries.
    and i even didn’t recieve any email about what’s happening.

    in case there are anything volating,
    plz tell me and recover the site,
    i’ll remove any of them within 3 days.

    Many Thanks.
    Dennis

    This is exactly the same as the two i send before using the Form.
    I sincerely hope that xanga’s staff can consider this application and reply to me at least a comfirmation of my request have been received. (my email: dennis10113@hotmail.com)
    thanks a lot!

  • Hi John,

    My page was also shut down and I have been trying to restore my page for almost 2 weeks. It is frustrating because xanga is apart of my daily life and I also have been a premium customer for over 2 years. I am well over the age and meet the requirements. Please try tp restore my page. It would be greatly appreciate.

    User ID: demoisellekpl

    Thanks you,

    Jenny

  • Dear John

    i have the same problem as the above, i have applied the restoration form, but no any response and restoration. My xanga is important to me as i write down every things in my daily life. I meet the age requirement!! (i am over 20 years old !!) Can you please help me to restore it?? my email is natsuno02-carrie@yahoo.com.hk. thank you so much!!

    Carrie

  • Would you mind contacting me through email?? thx a lot~~~

  • Thank you, John, Thank you thank you thank you.

  • Thank U sooo much my xanga got shut down so i had to get a knew on

  • Okay, this is getting VERY frustrating. Rowd149 here, again, cuz despite 2 attempts to get my xanga back through restoration system, I’ve not gotten even an email acknowledging that you all got MY email. I think it’s official we’re all fed up with this. WE WANT ANSWERS. WHAT are the eligibility requirements? WHY were so many people who apparently met them shut down? WHAT are you doing to correct the problem, because OBVIOUSLY the renewal process isn’t working. And WHEN are the people who did nothing wrong going to get an apology?

  • Thank you so much for restoring my site (missingmom) I really appreciate and I’d like to thank Xanga too on behalf of my siblings.

    Much love, Kris

  • I recently shut down a foolish gag xanga that I started at the expensive of one of my friends.  I thought that shutting down the site would erase all traces of it but apparently you can still read a preview of it if you type his name under “blogs”

    I filled out a restore application so I could log back on and change or delete the post, but I’ve yet to hear back or been able to access the xanga.  I’m starting to feel sorry for my friend because I was being dumb.
    How long does it normally take to be approved for a xanga restoration?  The sooner, the better.

    Thank you.

  • Yea. Thanks for not explaining this AT ALL.
    Or providing people with what exactly the eligibilty requirements are.
    Or, over a week later, STILL not emailing people who shut down.
    Yes, you had to do it right away. BUT you still havent tried contacting ANYONE.
    And that, is just completely unprofessional.

  • why couldnt anyone have posted something somewhere to inform us??? MY XANGA was shut down!! I’ve sent two emails, and I have gotten NO response!! WHY???????????

  • Why are most people xangas are being shut down?

  • I just want to ask why some of the xangas have been restored,but i cann’t??I have already applied my application form for several days …but it seems to me that noththing have been done for it?How long do i need to wait?????????

  • I just want to ask why some of the xangas have been restored,but i cann’t??I have already applied my application form for several days …but it seems to me that noththing have been done for it?How long do i need to wait?????????

  • Its pretty cynical to shut down kids’ sites before Xanga does a rollout of a nudge-nudge wink wink myspace clone, just lip service to protecting our youth or something, when you happily allow hate and porn sites to flourish.  The hate sites are mostly illegal too. 

  • John…i am kind of tired of waiting for my account to be restored. My another xanga ID is: Youth_Association. Please restore it for me. And that Youth _Association are created for a club…and the club is three years old…so I put down 2002 as the birthyear….please John…I would like you to restore my account…please….

  • asdf

  • asdf

  • I don’t understand how you guys can send out notices for stuff like “NOW YOU CAN ADD TITLES TO YOUR XANGA!!” and not be able to send out notices for new eligibility requirements. It’s been almost a week and my xanga has NOT been restored. I’ve sent out at least 3 emails so far and I’ve gotten no response, and NO archive or anything has been sent to me.

  • Thank you so much. This means a lot to me getting this site back.

  • I JUST MADE THIS.. AND I DONT CARE IF YOU DELETE IT.. AND IM PATIENT AND ALL.. BUT I JUST HAD TO SAY SOMETHING IN PUBLIC! I’M 16.. APPARENTLY YOU ONLY HAVE TO BE 13 TO SIGN UP. SO WHATS THE DEAL? MINE WAS DELETED AND I’VE BEEN WAITING MORE THAN A FEW WEEKS.. ONE REPLY FROM “MARY” TELLING ME TO FILL OUT A REQUEST TO GET IT BACK.. WELL I DID A LONG LONG TIME AGO. PLEASE. I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG. I KEEP ON MY PERSONAL THINGS PRIVATE. AND EVERYTHING PUBLIC WASN’T OFFENSIVE.. OR ANYTHING. I’VE GOT PICS ON THERE KINDA LIKE MY YEARBOOKS, YOU KNOW? THE ONLY THING I HAVE TO LOOK AT MY PAST.. AND I DON’T HAVE THE URL SAVED OR THE PHOTOS SAVED ON MY COMPUTER ANYMORE.. THEY’RE JUST ON XANGA. AND I HAVE TO HAVE THEM BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. UM. I MIGHT COME BACK IF NO REPLY. JUST PLEASE HURRY, I’M ASKING YOU NICELY.

    http://www.xanga.com/sitemessage.aspx?user=o_R_i_G__i_N_a_L

  • It has been a week..
    I’m still waiting for my old xanga’s back. (:

  • Thank You John…Thank you so much for restoring my site….Thank you!!! Keep up the good work~

  • I’ve been trying for a week now too. I wonder if my new Xanga got a trial of Premium as a way of telling me that the old one can never come back…

  • Its okay John!I didn’t really matter to me…i was just alittle sad since my xanga got shut down when my dad let me get on…I forgive you john!!

  • Thanks for restoring my accounts, It means alot to me to have it my xanga back.

    To people who havn’t had their account restore yet, please be patient hopefully he will get to yours account. it took him a while to restore my account too. i hope he willl restore many people’s account as needed.

  • I have a problem

    i hit upgrade my profile, and i don’t like it. I want the old version better, how do i get back to that?

  • what’s an archive?

  • thanks for getting my site back on line, but is there anyway to reinstitute my position as leader for the blogring i was taken out of?

  • thank you!

  • I hope i get my site back soon..The note i sent on what site it was is Shirley__Fennes.Please bring that site back…it was my favorite to use…

  • i dont know if you know but the photo upload feature performance has been severely degraded.

    currently at 1.5 mbps dsl connection
    it takes over 13 seconds just for the photo upload popup to be displayed
    it took over 83 seconds to upload a 13KB jpg

  • Thank you for re-activating Xanga site. Unfortunately, our profile pics are lost.

  • thanks for giving me my accnt back

  • i put in a request a week ago and they haven’t gotten back to me!

  • Tonnes of thanks!!! :)

  • thank You¬john¬

  • THX A LOT FOR RESTORING MY WEBSITE

  • Well those of us who were affected ok it is done and over with. We werent happy.  Fine and dandy.  We must get over it tell our friends with whom we talk to were back.  It isnt all that hard.  They here at xanga at least respected those whom stuck with them and gave kind comments to restore their accounts.  You didnt need to get to them pissed off more.  Poor John I think has to have damn strong shoulders to still be standing since he is taking the brunt of this.  I dont know who is helping poor John, he maybe slow, but he is steadily working.  I think and have a guessed poor John wont be doing this again for a while.  That is all I have to say.   

  • so i guess if you can take my xanga away without warning, you can restore it without warning, too. don’t get me wrong i appreciate it, but where did my profile pics go?

  • I AM SICK AND TIRED of losing my post……apparently your attitude of myspace-envy has gone on to the point where we now must endure the inconsistencies of having a site that works only on occasion.

    Way to go….and BTW your little “xanga bug” can go to hell!!!!

  • It’s back. Finally. I’m still pissed at you though, but thanks >_>

  • Double post. WOOOOh. Anyway, those of you who still don’t have your’s back, keep up the fight, this should NEVER have happened at the first place.

  • Do you like to eat turkey burgers?

  • thanks for bringing back my xanga!

  • It has been almost over a week and http://www.xanga.com/lonely_presea ‘s AKA MINE has not been restored i have sent you TWO Conserned(Spelling) about this and still no reply or site restored.I was FORGIVING YOU for your actions and yet,This is what i get in return?!If its not back by next friday then ME AND MY FRIENDS WILL QUIT XANGA AND SWITCH TO TAGWORLD!

    Peace,

    Norma

  • What?Did you not be able to restore my site so you shut it down for good?FUCK YOU XANGA!YOU CAN BURN IN HELL FOR ALL I CARE!!Yeah and look how pissed Norma_Beatty is because your not returning it!And lol gxKnight.

  • Ugh…This is the last time i’ll EVER use xanga…

  • John i didn’t mean Red_Rose86 I mean’t Red_Snow86@yahoo.com !Please dont get mixed up…I bet you won’t even see this message.

  • i got my xanga back. thank you!

  • Yea if there are people who are underage and shouldn’t have sites & lie on their sites.. then their sites should be shut down I totally agree.  If there are specific guidelines to be met here then they should be met because when people join (especially FOR FREE) they are agreeing to your terms and this is your place.  And it’s FREE, so geez..  I totally understand :o )

  • i have just sent another app. letter to you , but i found that my xanga was just been restored!

    i am sorry about the second app. letter,

    anyway, thanks for restoring my xanga!

  • what were the eligibility requirements?

  • HELLLLLLLLOOOO..
    Its been like what? 2-3 weeks already?

    I want my xanga back..
    OR at least a “copy” of it!

    You haven’t even emailed me back yet!
    I sent you 5!
    2 for lillaosh0rtee
    1 for kwazyxkim
    1 for omgitzkimberly
    and 1 for immuhdork_xd

    This is not fair!
    Either you just ignore mine or you just don’t wanna deal with any of this.

    I’m gonna tell every one of my friends to move to Myspace. >:[

  • i had to make a new xanga cuz of u
    AGHHH! o well
    wat r the elgibility requirements anyway?

  • hey I hope you actually read all these, i have been a “xanga freak” for a while now, have had success from it in different things, and i have Myspace too, but I am more of a xanga person, and I wasn’t affected by this stuff going on, but I was wondering if you could give me a link to check it out at so I know that I am not doing anything wrong or to prevent it in the future. Also i have some ideas that would make xanga do much much better, mostly to do with music and why Myspace is improving and xanga isn’t, at least not with the people I know, so please talk to me

    Sincerely,

    Aaron Smith

  • hey! my site was shut down, what the flip happened? xanga is handling this in a very inmature way. they should tell the web bloggers before they shut down their sites. i mean im glad there are people who take care of xanga but shutting down peoples sites without warning? thats just plain retarded. thanks alot xanga.

    with all due respect,

    chinese_chic007           ballet_babe_quotes (recintly shut down…BY XANGA)

  • hey, admins ………

    THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME I SAY ABOUT THE FOLLOWING !!!

    Spywares are appearing in the ads, I mean the header. I am really serious about it ….  It’s really annoying ….. I was redirected to ”spy sites” when I click on xanga recently ….

    It does not only appears in my computer …. !!!!!!!!!

    I have TESTED on different computer ……
    I shut down all kinds of protects of the computer that is going to be tested, and I open and visit xanga sites continuously …
    A mainly BLUE-colored site appeared  …
    it looks like designs of Microsoft, but of coz , it fakes ……… It requested an installation of “Error Removal Tool”  , and they are attempting to install in the testing computers through pops ~

    Actions should be taken IMMEDIATELY !!!!!!

    **** P.S. ****
    I think xanga shoud have a feekback or request log for users to raise questions or to point out problems ASAP ……. All blogs like yahoo and msn do have a way to let users connect with admins ….. and … I think Xanga MUST have one as well !!!

    I LOVE XANGA.
    BUT, I HATE THOSE THOSE SPYS SO MUCH !

    I WOULD BE APPRECIATED IF ONE CAN REPLY ME BACK.
    Thx !!

  • This was not handled well at the time. It may be being handled well NOW, but the situation left a bitter taste in my mouth. The lack of information at the time and the suddenness of the “attack” were, in my opinion, rude.

    Emails to Xanga are not responded to quickly enough; this frustration added to the situation. Comments left on various places were not responded to. Being unable to get answers I know that people left; I nearly did out of solidarity and some anger at what had happened.

    The positive now is the ability for those who were thrown off to get their work restored.

  • You cannot go into details as to why
    you shut down people’s sites without warning?
    Seems like bad communication to me.

    I know 2 people whose sites were closed…and they
    were both over 50 years old and had NO porn on their
    sites…no laws were broken…no terms violated…
    nothing offensive whatsoever…

    but you have no explanation for them?

    It sounds like you may have just goofed on a few
    of those and are not wanting to admit it.

    Just my opinion, though.
    I hope you will start explaining things.

  • None of the links above are working

  • Omg john your my xanga hero now!Thanks for restoring my site!!

  • i e-mailed you that paper……i dont know what an archive is so if any of you guys do know…comment me back at my site gurlieshoppermu12

    thanx a bunch!

    meaghan

  • They knowingly took money from all these underage kids and then got caught and had to do something to try and fix this. I am speaking for my 12 year daughter that signed up using her real birthday the entire time.  They chose to ignore this and let her build and PAY for a site then to turn around and shut it down. I have yet to see a refund or response – we shall see. I know she should have read everything, but what do you expect from a child? I would say 75% of her 6th grade class is on here and only some where shut down. Why? Beacause the only way for them to know is when they signed up they used their real age! This should have been stopped immediately at the set up page. All dates of birth under the requirements should be blocked.

  • will u get my old site back it is http://www.xanga.com/shaunfan comment me back when u get it

  • I’m not really liking the new editor or the upgraded profiles. The new editor is more complicated. The buttons aren’t as clearly labeled. And the new profiles have too much information. It seems like your trying to be like Myspace.

    And Myspace sucks.

  • And I totally agree with “glittering_deceptions” up there. You guys were justified in what you did. There were kids as young as 10…on Xanga! When Xanga’s terms of use clearly say that you must be at least 13.

  • The only eligibility requirement I can find is that you must be 13. I am 32…Granted, I didn’t major in math, but I’m thinking 32 is considerably older than 13. However, having my site shutdown my site for no apparent reason has made me wildly popular with my youth group. So I guess it’s not all bad. However, I’ve done nothing even questionable with my site and definitely want a refund on my upgrade. If I can ever find a physical address for Xanga, I will be filing with the BBB.

  • now.. what comes to mind when I think of the talking smiley banner ad at the top of the page

    howabout ANNOYING

    howabout DISRUPTIVE

    howabout TASTELESS

  • There seems to be a bug on https://register.xanga.com .

  • Thanks for creating such a great blog John! Actually I like Xanga so much that I’ve purchased Xanga premium. I was wondering though- how come blink boxes and the snowing script no longer works for Xanga premium?

  • I have submitted the application yesterday, but how long does it take to restore my xanga????

    I really want to get back my xanga…can anyone answer me?

  • Shit man you just don’t go and shut people’s sites down i logged down how many hours a day i worked on my xanga i spent 5,867 hours on that site yours truly mother fucker.

  • Yall are handling it well, so keep up the good work.

    ~Areal

  • I am concerned because one of the workers for Xanga has deleted my
    Xanga and I am wondering if you can PLEASE put it back up the way it
    was. I am asking this because I have put ALOT of work into this website. I
    put a background,music,and alot more things. I have put many blogs on
    there and those are small memories…. like a little diary. So pretty
    much, you have now deleted my “online diary”, my xanga , my hard work,
    and all my freinds on there. When I checked to see if anyone blogged or
    said anything in my chatterbox, it said Shayal’s site has been shut
    down for violation of Xanga’s eligibility requirements… I am wondering
    what I did wrong. When i saw that, i thought Xanga’s site was down, but i
    found out that it was not and i got very mad! I am asking you one more
    time… please put my Xanga site up again just how it was….. here is
    my Xanga link : http://www.xanga.com/shayal . If you need my user name and
    password please e-mail me back and ask for it.
    This is my other e-mail that i use so please reply to this e-mail
    adress.

    P.S. if you do put my Xanga site back up just like how it was… then
    thank you very much. I always go on Xanga and i try to blog daily. Now
    i cannot because some one has deleted my account. Please do put it back
    up.
    Thank you very much for reading this e-mail and hopefully doing what
    I ask.

    Sincerely,
    Shayal

  • i would like to say i was affected by this and now i have to use my sisters account and i don’t know hy my account was shut down

  • my name is sarah
    I am but three,
    My eyes are swollen
    I cannot see,
    I must be stupid
    I must be bad,
    What else could have made
    My daddy so mad?
    I wish I were better
    I wish I weren’t ugly,
    Then maybe my mommy
    Would still want to hug me.
    I can’t speak at all
    I can’t do a wrong
    Or else I’m locked up
    All the day long
    When I awake I’m all alone
    The house is dark
    My folks aren’t home.
    When my mommy does come
    I’ll try and be nice,
    So maybe I’ll get just
    One whipping tonight
    Don’t make a sound!
    I just heard a car
    My daddy is back
    From Charlie’s Bar.
    I hear him curse
    My name he calls
    I press myself
    Against the wall.
    I try and hide
    From his evil eyes
    I’m so afraid now
    I’m starting to cry.
    He finds me weeping
    He shouts ugly words,
    He says its my fault
    That he suffers at work.
    He slaps me and hits me
    And yells at me more,
    I finally get free
    And I run for the door.
    He’s already locked it
    And I start to bawl,
    He takes me and throws me
    Against the hard wall.
    I fall to the floor
    With my bones nearly broken,
    And my daddy continues
    With more bad words spoken.
    “I’m sorry!”, I scream
    But its now much too late
    His face has been twisted
    Into unimaginable hate.
    The hurt and the pain
    Again and again
    Oh please God, have mercy!
    Oh please let it end!
    And he finally stops
    And heads for the door,
    While I lay there motionless
    Sprawled on the floor.
    My name is Sarah
    And I am but three,
    Tonight my daddy
    Murdered me.

    There was once alittle girl named Chelsey Mcaun. She was killed in1933, by a homicidal maniac who buried her alive while chanting a satanic chant.Those were the words spoken, and now you have read them…Anyone who reads the chant will meet this small child. In the middle of the night, she will be on your ceiling, as you sleep, she will suffacate you as she was suffacated.. Unless you send this to at least 20 people before tommorow, so she will leave you be. Some guy read those words,
    yet he didn’t believe it. So he didn’t send it. The very next day, his parents found him lying DEAD on his bed. chain lettters. i hate them

  • i always defended you and shit i never knew you were such bastards

  • good idea, you know…
    maybe you could have come up with it a little earlier?
    those underaged kids who make a xanga where causing lots of troublee. seriously
    they were bitching at the older ones, saying that we copied them. ok whatever. good idea

    kthanks bye

  • hi, alot of my friend’s accounts have been deleted.

    i was just wondering, what are the eligibility requirements? my site hasnt been shut down yet but just incase could you remind me of them please?

    thanks!

    -marissa

  • yeah what she said ^

  • Hey im not trying to sound rude but i sent that registration thing in over a month ago and i did it again about two weeks ago, and i never got a reply or my old xanga back, i just want to no why so if you could please comment me back and tell me why, i would appreciate it and i would really appreciate you restoring my old site http://www.xanga.com/lilsurfergrl3

  • this is rediculous.. there are no reason

    bs

  • Comment number 300, and I still don’t know what exactly prompted you guys to do this. Although I would guess it has something to do with the new flagging system you’re launching…..
    Dr. Carasco

  • Suspending accounts due to “violations” and not even explaining what those violations are supposed to be is simply bogus. The equivalent of violating habeus corpus.

    (And, on a more than metaphorical level. of questionable legality, I might add–I know of at least one case where someone’s account was suspendong and he and I went over the TOS with a fine-toothed comb–there were NO violations of the user agreement. Lucky for him everything that was meaningful he had already archived or backed up.)

    This is plenty enough to cause me to say “Sayonara!” to Xanga. Until and unless Myspace f**ks someone over this egregiously, that’s the only service I’ll be using!

  • My friend (id kenma1234) was block the xanga account…but MARY said that they can’t restore ken’s account…

    but ken has sent a email to you and mary…he just want to have his id:kenma1234 and tell you please delete his account,let him can open a new account and use kenma1234 this id name…

    however ,he has waited about one mounth…CAN YOU HELP HIM?! HE just want to have the id:kenma1234…if you don’t delete his old account,how can he use the new account(id:kenma1234)???

    PLEASE HELP THANKS YOU!!!

  • I thought you should tell us briefly what the Eligibility Requirements actually are.

  • fuck eligibility requirements!!!

  • fucking bullshit!!!

  • excuse me. and what are these mysterious eligibility requierments that i somehow don’t meet anymore????

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