Introducing Xanga Footprints, version 1.0! Our new tracking tool shows you the state or country each visitor is from.  To make it easy to use, Ori and Dave added it to your Feedback Log, so that you can view all your feedback stats in one place:

» http://www.xanga.com/private/feedbackfootprints.aspx

At first, we didn’t want to support site trackers because it felt like an invasion of privacy.  But over time, we realized that many Xangans felt safer with trackers installed.  So last year, we decided to change our Javascript policy to allow them.  And now to make it even easier for you, we’ve built our own!

Next up: username footprints.  We’ll be updating Footprints in a few days to include usernames of your visitors. We understand that some users might prefer to browse Xanga anonymously, so we’d like to give you the chance to opt-out of username tracking *before* we launch it:

» http://www.xanga.com/private/editaccountprivacy.aspx

This feature hits our database pretty hard, so we’re gonna ease into it.  So to start, Classic members will get 5 days of footprints, and Premium members will get 10. Please check out Xanga Footprints v1.0, and let us know what you think!

We noticed a while ago
that people were using JavaScript to lock out unsigned in visitors;
it’s a neat idea, but pretty easy to get around (you just have to turn
off JavaScript ).  So we
built native support for this feature right into Xanga!  If
you’re interested, you can activate your Xanga Lock
here:

http://www.xanga.com/private/editaccountprivacy.aspx

It’s a great way to make
your site just a bit more private – and while you’re at it, it will
hide your site from any outside search engines.

We just made blogrings more accessible!  For a long time, Xangans have used the Blogrings module to view their blogrings. But we’ve started getting lots of help emails about missing Blogrings modules.

It turns out that some skins and layout codes actually (accidentally?) hide the Blogrings module.  We’ve been amazed at how creative Xangans are, and it does make sense to hide it for some site designs.  So Monsur just launched a page where you can always see all the blogrings you’ve joined:

•     http://edit.xanga.com/blogrings.aspx

Please check it out and let us know what you think – and have fun with those awesome site designs !

I read through all the comments on the new titles, and noticed that a
number of people wanted to know how to change the font and color of
their titles.  And while I was browsing around, I spotted several
sites that were already using CSS to design their titles.   Inspired by other Xangans, Joel and I put together a simple Help page to make it easier for users to customize their titles (without any knowledge of CSS!).

• http://help.xanga.com/titlestyle.htm

Please check it out, and let us know if you
experience any problems with the code.  Thanks!

Ever try to add a title to your post?  We’ve noticed a lot of Xangans doing just that, so Joel added an optional title field to make it easier.   Titles are auto-formatted to stand out (see my title above), but if you’re familiar with the basics of CSS, you can customize them by adding a H4 style code in your Look and Feel.

That’s not all!  The titles you add will also be used to create cleaner web addresses for your posts.  For example, the old address for this post used to be:   http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=Mary&tab=weblogs&uid=379951244.  Here’s what it looks like now:

•     http://www.xanga.com/Mary/379951244/post-titles-and-addresses.html

“Whoa, but I don’t want to add any words to the address!”  Don’t worry – if your post doesn’t have a title, we won’t add any descriptive words to the address.  And if you want a title but don’t want it to show up on the address, just leave the title field blank and add a title at the top of the weblog entry textbox!

I like the new addresses because they’re shorter and more personal.  After all, if your site address is http://www.xanga.com/mary, it makes a lot of sense for your post addresses to start out the same way.   (Old links to your existing posts will always work, so you don’t have to make any changes.)

Please check it out here, and let us know what you think – thanks!

* Codes that depend on web addresses might break, including some trackers.  We’ve started to compile a list of affected trackers here, and will update it throughout the day.

** We’ve tweaked our Comments Color Code that alternates comment background colors.  If your Smiley Script broke, please check out our Smiley Script FAQ.