June 8, 2013
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What To Expect When You're Expecting (An Upgrade)
I know that @edlives and I have had more than a few people ask us questions about what to expect once the upgrade has taken place and Xanga 2.0 goes live. Well, having been on WordPress for a number of years now, I can at least give you and idea of what you can probably expect from the very beginning. But please keep in mind that these are just some of the features, and they may be implemented differently with the Xanga upgrade. Still, there's nothing wrong with looking under the hood at the engine, right?
So let's take a look...Comment Moderation
As I'd mentioned in my radio interview with Alex, one of the perks of the new platform will be the ability to moderate your comments.
This means that you'll no longer have to worry about your posts being spammed by people trying to get you to by replica watches, purses or shoes. Every comment will be hidden until you approve it. The settings allow you to approve every comment, or allow comments from people you've previously approved. This is my current setting. So if someone like @TheMarriedFreshman comments on one of my posts, it will allow her to comment on any subsequent posts without needing approval.
Group Blogs
Interested in starting your own -ish-type site on Xanga 2.0? Maybe something called "The Inkwell" for aspiring writers? You'll be able to do that with this platform. Each user will have their own login and password and you can assign administrative levels to each.
What's cool about this is that you can have any number of moderators who work collectively on blog content and help keep the posts fresh while appealing to a wider audience. And you'll still have the same tools for preventing spam.
Custom Themes
No two blogs will have to look alike. The sheer number of options available to the look and feel of your site means that you could have a new look for every day of the year if you wanted! Here are two of the blogs I currently run and they couldn't be any more different.
That's just a few of the perks of the upgrade. Now like I said, I don't know how Xanga plans to implement these in the upgrade, but I do know that they will be available to all users along with a slew of other very cool features like:
- Threaded comments
- Embeded media
- Individual Post Ratings
- Custom Polling
- and Real-Time Stats!
Just a glimpse of things to come. If you have any other questions, just ask!
Comments (13)
Thanks for sharing that! I really had no idea what to expect. That gives me a little bit to go on.
Bleh
Not to be rude... But I'd like to see the xanga team taking a step forward to showing us what we are really going to pay for... what they are offering not what we are assuming will be offered. And show us does mean a preview. Which people can even do on tumblr to show you what a new theme will look like.
Good visual representations of what to expect. I never used WordPress, so it's nice to see how it works.
I love the WordPress group format, so this is exciting.
Thanks for posting this. More, more, more
cool!
My question is will the new Xanga 2.0 still have Protected Posts, Private Messaging, Footprints, Pulses, Recs, the ability to edit and delete your comments, since WP doesn't have those features? Will Xanga import those over?
This is what I was hoping to see from the the Xanga team. But I understand they have very limited resources right now to provide these communications. I'm glad you and edlives are taking more of this role.
@musterion99 - Yes. For the most part, everything you mentioned will be available. You can have password protected posts. You can send direct messages to individual members. You won't have pulses, all those will be converted to posts. But you will have the REC equivalent, which is LIKE-ing a post.
@MyxlDove - I'm on WP now and I don't get notifications if others I'm following Like a post.
It is great you are explaining how it works.
So theyre going to remove pulses on xanga 2. ? I hope not;(
I'm foregoing WordPress due to privacy concerns. I don't need my e-mail showing up on all my comments or my IP address. That is just too much info.