February 20, 2008
-
In my absence much has changed. I never even figured out the friend thing, and now there is something about a True Badge and people are leaving me minis. Thank you but what are they and how do you get them?
I was reluctant to respond to the friend thing and, believe me, it had nothing to do with anything other than I had just come back from being gone, didn’t understand what I would be committing to, and wasn’t sure I was going to be that good of a commenter, let alone friend. Is it a way around the ten-people limit for protected posts? I got a message from someone I didn’t know saying I needed to be their friend, and now I’m wondering if it was so I could read a certain post or something.
About that time I see on the footprints someone from France has stopped by. The second time they showed up I took a closer look and it listed Review as the page they came from. What does that mean? And why was it in special blank ink?
I have noticed, on several people’s sites (front page), the word chatboard, with part of a message left by someone for everyone to see. Weird.
I go to see what the topic is for Featured Grownups and someone is writing about whether or not they got the True Badge, whatever that is.Suddenly, I’m getting an occasional comment with a fancy looking “ in front of it. How is that happening? Does it have something to do with the minis? Are there other things I have yet to discover?
Comments (15)
From what I can gather much of what is here is fluff. I think you get the true think if someone else nominates you. That’s all it takes. Friends I could never get either. Seems like a friend is a special subscriber. I guess that means you have to send them holiday cards and valentines. Cheers
I took a break from Xanga too and came back to find so many new toys! And I do think they are just little toys to piddle around with, kind of like the assortment of “applications” Facebook has now. I still come here mostly to write and read what others have written, though I’ll admit I’ve done much less of each lately.
i think you found them all… there really aren’t that many. and the minis? they’re just a toy- a way of leaving a visual comment- but they cost you xanga credit. they gave you 600 at the very beginning and you earn more by leaving comments or having comments left for you… the more you have, the easier it is to spend them on a mini for a friend… me? i never have very many since i tend to freely give minis- bc they’re fun! (and they had to lower the price on many of them bc most of us are cheap!) =) i’m glad you’re back!
It seems like a lot of disconnected ‘stuff’ to me–so I just stick to what I know. Welcome back!
Yup, they’re all fluff. No worries
Just write and everything else will sort of fall into place 
i think the true badge comes form frequency of posting. the minis are just added fun. same with chatboard. if someone wants me to befriend them, i go to their site. if it’s locked i’m not playing. i need to see what i’m gettig into.
it’s all good. just don’t leave again…no telling what else will happen.
I have no idea what any of the accoutrements are either, and I’ve been here the whole time. If they’re giving stuff out, they’re not really handing out memos about it.
And thanks…I am different. After a year of living crisis to crisis, I have definitely opted out, and that freedom is so incredibly liberating.
I think the “ is from the minis. Other new features are confusing to me as well but the cool part is that they are all optional. You can opt to keep it all the same.
“True” came from them trying to give props to regular Xanga users. They were trying to be nice. “Life” is when you pay for a lifetime account premium. I might do that, not sure. It allows for extras like bigger protected lists and no ads.
In order to do the “Friends” thing you have to update your profile – and give way too much information, it seems to me. I’ve resisted all this new stuff so far (except for the occasional mini, which you can do fairly easily right on the comments page.) I don’t like the new formats, the new bells and whistles. I just want to blog and I don’t need those things to do that. I’m even still using the old editor. I think all the new stuff is mostly for younger bloggers and to try and keep up with MySpace and the other blog sites. It’s nice to have options and I truly hope Xanga doesn’t force us to adopt all the changes. I’m afraid I’d have to go elsewhere if they did.
Just call me Old Stick-in-the-mud.
I don’t know what “friends” are either. I’m not much on “friends,” except where I have to be to read someone’s posts. Minis…who knows?
I had some mini and I used them all by giving them away. And after that I just ignore them. I do not use the friend features. Basically I read the sites I like and comment when I have something to say. Most of the time I read in silence. I do not think you miss much of the features. The True thing I think it is more an ad for Xanga:)
I’m as clueless as you–but happy to see you returned to Xanga before me so I could catch up!
It does feel good to connect…but I still feel like I will write more than read, so I’m not a good team player
. I just am stretched to my limits with time and spend most evenings playing music to all hours it seems. But I have missed this.
I dip in and out of the Xanga community – though now that it’s not a “RESTRICTED SITE” at work, I’ll be around far more often. All the new bells and whistles are far too complicated for me and I see them as Xanga’s attempt to create a social networking site and draw us all in so that we live in Xanga-world nearly entirely with all our emailing, chatting, blogging, etc., and then pay for little things here and there or at least boost numbers for Xanga’s advertisers, so Xanga makes even more money. Meaning I distrust it all. The “friends” I have are all people who’ve requested me – of course, I say yes. I’m not sure if I’m meant to go over to their site and make a similar request. I disabled chats and emailing through Xanga. I’m interested in sharing our lives and in our writing, not in all this paraphenalia. There are some people here who’ve become on-line friends and who mean a lot to me – like you. That’s all I really care about. So I ignore the rest. As long as Xanga lets us still post and leave comments, it’s okay. xo
I can’t possibly imagine why I earned that “true” badge, I’m not very true to xanga, on and off again like most of us I guess. Certainly not something I earned! And all the other questions you asked–I dunno either, xanga was always so simple, easy, now I’m getting lost too. The first time xanga took me to the “new” first page for my site I almost panicked (why or why is there a “K” in panicked?) anyway, I’m just ingnoring all the new now and wow features and pretending it’s all still the same old xanga. Got to read the rest of your posts now…catch up now that you’re posting again!