On…

Popularity.   I wear it like a bra—which means never.  I’m brazen, braless. bare-chested.  So what if I’m a guy?  I keep my bra in my drawer.

Guantanamo Bay.  I didn‘t think of this one, but I think I have figured it out.  Either:  1)  We believe that there are some terrorists so dumb that they would attack whatever country their comrades are being held in.  Hence...terrorists striking at the heart of Castro’s Cuba?  In many pugnacious official minds, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.  Or:  2)  See, these Al Qaeda are escape artists bound to break out of wherever they’re held.  The prison revolt in Mazar-e Sharif and the  Pakastani bus-takeover are but two examples.  And if in Cuba, we let our guard down, maybe, just maybe, some prisoners would escape to the Cuban interior, where we be obliged as a military force to pursue them after Castro, in continuing anti-American rebelliousness, grants them amnesty.  Then it’s just a matter of birding two birds with one stone.  Rumor is there is already a special cell reserved in Guantanamo Bay stocked with Fidel’s favorite brand of cigars.

The Future of Xanga.  “But we still need a lot more premium members to keep Xanga running…”   Which means unless they get a LOT more, Xanga will STOP running.  I don’t take this as a threat, but a courteous fore-notice of a world that could be.  Sort of like Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Future.

 I like the XanGods—they’re more forthright than the likes of the Enron megalomaniac fraudulent execs.   The problem they have here, I think, is that the Basic and Premium Xanga are more alike than different.  Hence, many peeps don’t see Premium as a credible personal economic return.  Some peeps, for sure, have gone Premium purely out of civic-mindedness, i.e., to help keep Xanga afloat.  But it isn’t reasonable to expect the lot of everybody, or even a sufficiently significant minority to do that.  (hell, I’d probably revert to Basic if Xanga wasn’t paying me triple to spotlight it—j.kidding )  

So the marketing quest, in my eyes, is to make Basic and Premium more different and Premium significantly preferable without estranging the community.  The best way to do this would be to introduce nifty new features to Xanga  available to Premium only.  But perhaps the Xangod developers are already at the limits of their expansion resources.  Or perhaps master improvisers like seanmeister and wave_function have already rendered certain exclusive upgrade features irrelevant by revealing to us all aspects of the manipulable Xanga matrix.

On the other hand, if the Xangods further restrict Basic tools or capabilities in order to make Premium comparatively more attractive, they would surely engender a community  outcry comparable to *Taxation without Representation* or Prohibition or the likely response of the smoking public should the government ever outlaw cigarette production in America.  Many peeps, in disgust over such “downsizing” would likely leave and Xanga’s potential base for further Premium expansion would mortally erode.

One restriction I think a lot of peeps might tolerate to Basic that would make Premium relatively more attractive to my eyes would be to allow Basic to show only the very most recent post while maintaining Premium at the five most recent posts or even expanding it back to ten.   After all, there appeared to be no outcry when Xanga cut everybody back to five posts.  Would an egalitarian outcry arise if Xanga, upon the rationale of economy and efficiency, cut only Basic back to one visible post?? 

Still I really feel that making Premium more attractive through additional enhancements is greatly preferable to any risk of dissolutive restrictions.  And yet…the future phantom of a graveyard Xanga lingers.