Over on Xanga, or one of their branch sites (I don’t remember where it was, nor do I really care which is was on), someone had blogged about how the same blogs show up on the homepage all of the time – meaning no new blogs really show up in the spotlight. I agree. It’s annoying. I enjoy going there for blogging ideas, because a lot of times there will be something good to write a blog reply to[1. I’ve really only ever posted one of these, but maybe in the future I’ll post more instead of deleting them because they seem like “old news”.].

There’s also people who say that they want and need more comments, but when I look at these people’s blogs, they’re practically empty. To run a blog and make it work, you have to actually post. I don’t understand what could possibly be so difficult about that. Aside from that, your blog cannot be on friend’s lock, and if you comment blogs off of the Xanga network, those bloggers aren’t likely to comment you back unless you 1) allow anonymous comments (meaning you allow a name, email and URL to be left) and 2) have your blog open to the public. It’s just not going to happen.

As for the blogs that are often featured, I understand that you want to share it and may feel the need to, but why would you do such a thing when it’s not your own material? I see articles on the front page about styling your bangs, cat tattoos, and classic art interpretations made by a teen – all things from other websites/blogs! It’s not a forum; it’s a blogging network that I want to see actual STUFF I can write about – not shit that I can’t write about because it would be pointless! These posts have so many comments on them, so many recommendations and are featured. It’s quite ridiculous, because they act like they’re actually blogging.

I suppose I’m being a bit mean here, but this really ticks me off. Xanga has changed a lot since I used to avidly blog on it[2. Even though it was in 2008 and I did actually blog, it was just pure crap. Really. I had started over May 2008, but I’d been there since May 2005. Too bad I didn’t have a WordPress/blogger! Could have imported to my scrapblog!]. Blogs used to be pure and real and original, not copied. Thus said, I think I have every right to be ticked off at how much it has changed – to strongly dislike and despise the bloggers who think of themselves as “it” bloggers on the Xanga network because of little things they do (from commenting various posts with not constructive criticism, but just plain cruelness, to copying others’ blogs and just putting a “via [link]”).

The icing on the cake would be that these bloggers credit image sources using the actual freaking image source – meaning the actual URL of the image – which doesn’t even begin to give proper credit.

The network I was a part of when it was merely Xanga and nothing else has drastically changed into this fake-like network I really hate. I understand that blogging has changed, and it will continue to change, but this is ridiculous. The bloggers are literally copying others word for word, and not all of them at least link back to the original source, and Xanga just deals with it. Back in the old days, they were very tight about that; your stuff had to be original. No one cares.

/end rant that’s long overdue.

This rant makes me wish I had a “pure shit” tag. Have a nice day. 😉