Thursday, 04 December 2008

• Resistance is Futile

  This entry is a bit long, but I urge you to read the entire thing because it concerns something very important for all of us here on Xanga.
  

  There's been a lot of talk all throughout Xanga recently (for a few months now) about the sudden proliferation of speciality blogging sites (the -ishes). A great many people are against them. These bloggers dislike being categorised, and insist that all should be free to discuss what they want, when they want, where they want. I've held my peace because I realise that people like to criticise (Xanga or anything) no matter what the current state of affairs, but I feel I should say something now. These naysayers are selfish! By refusing to collectivise their blogging, they are damaging not only Xanga as a whole, but themselves in the long run. In order to compete with other sites, and even to best them, Xanga needs to form a community. Those who refuse to help us hurt Xanga's finances, morale, and the usefulness of the site.
  
  Collective blogging is lucrative. By sorting content into specialised sites, Xanga can, by their own admission, garner ten times the ad revenues. This is obviously a tremendous financial benefit to both Xanga and the community. This money can then be easily reinvested into the site to finance further growth. However, in order for this to take place Xanga needs the capital that comes from specialised ad revenues. Every time you post a blog entry on your own site, you draw attention away from the needs of the community towards your own special requirements. This is not only selfish, but stupid! You generally create no profits as an individual blogger on Xanga. Some exceptional sites will generate a small profit, but for most of us we if we invest in our own advertisements we will earn no more than a few dollars a month. This revenue could be multiplied by ten, pooled with millions of other revenues, and used in a way that would help the entire Xanga community. By not allowing your entry to be placed on a common site, you take this potentially vast source of revenue away from the Xanga community, and garner very little benefit yourself.
  
  Individuality is good, of course, and ingenuity is vital in putting us ahead, but dissent discourages any beneficial ingenuity. Think about this - every time Xanga does something, dozens of bloggers focus their efforts into complaining about the change (whatever it might be). That creativity and productivity is completely wasted. In turn, bloggers get tired of being pressed with the same topic of complaint again and again, and lose their desire to blog. The entire morale of the community is damaged by dissent, which is made even worse when the topic of that dissent is against something that is generally a benefit. You may think you are helping Xanga by voicing your concerns, but in general you are sapping it of its energy to do anything but continue complaining. This eventually causes a repetitive cycle of retaliatory and self-concerned complaints over superficial matters. Time, energy, and potential are thrown away and the community suffers.
  
  Xanga is dropping in total and relative visitor numbers, but it is not too late. We must band together and set aside our petty individual desires. By acting in a concerted effort, we can achieve greatness, and long-term happiness in a way that short selfish actions will never do. Individuality is vital, but this can be maintained while channelling that creativity to collective specialisation sites. One person, one site is wasteful and harmful to the very foundations of Xanga society. We must all join, and urge our fellow Xangans to join, collective blogging sites like the various -ishes. Here, we do not have to maintain our own front page as writers, and as readers do not have to sift through content we are not interested in. All that we must do is simply submit content to the appropriate site. As readers, we know that we can visit the site that discusses the topics we are interested in. As writers, we know we are putting forth our creativity and effort into productive channels and towards a receptive audience. And, as a community, we can all know that we are helping that entire community. If we work together, we can vastly increase Xanga's revenue, as well as its relevance.
  
  All these benefits can be reaped without losing personal choice. While individual sites are wasteful, with a number of focused locations Xangans can still create diverse works. One blogger needn't feel limited to one field of interest, but can freely submit work to any site they want. As members, we will maintain our right to individuality of thought and expression in a focused, useful, and productive way that will benefit the community as a whole. Any slight down-sides resulting from lack of individual choice will be well made up by the vast increase in community choice we will gain as a group. Once we focus and create a better, more powerful Xanga community, the resources and capital will exist to further develop into all sorts of fields that would otherwise have been unachievable for a million tiny sites. Not only will more -ish sites be possible, but it would not be inconceivable for Xanga to enter into other business ventures to further benefit the community.
  
  Xanga finds itself at a crossroads. Every blogger here, every person reading or writing on Xanga or its affiliated sites, has been presented with an opportunity to help the Xanga community progress down the correct fork in the road. Collective blogging has begun, but it needs you to embrace it as the future for a successful and happy blogging community. The weakness of competing sites is their vast and unfocussed mass of users. Xanga can lead the way into the future by banishing its million tiny fiefdoms of the petty masses. These sites should be relegated to the graveyard of failed ideas. Collective work is the way of the future, and will enable us as a community to become powerful, successful, and happy. Writers will know their work is being read by an appreciative and interested audience. Readers will know where to find the content that interests them most. And all of us will know that we are doing our part to create a society that will eventually rival and overtake the greedy and selfish masses that currently make up MySpace and Facebook. We can do it. By having a Xanga account, you've joined a group. Now, I urge you to choose to join a society. Greatness is too far away for any one of us to grasp, but together it can be ours. I urge you to recommend this post so that others may come to think as we do. 

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