Is Xanga just a blogging kindergarten?  Isn’t it even worth a passing mention, let alone serious discussion, by the bloggerati ( the blogging literati, i.e., the emerging clique of “high-powered” bloggers who are schmoozing and oozing with visions of the *blogosphere* ) ??

You and I may think so, but it appears that John Hiler,  who qualifies as a member in good-standing of the bloggerati by merit of his position as the prolific writer/editor of Microcontent News (a webzine discussing weblogs) and CEO of WebCrimson, a weblog software consulting firm,  has nary a word to say about Xanga in his webzine.

Oh yes, John states in Microcontent News webzine’s “About the Editor”  section that he “helped build Xanga.com, one of the largest weblog community sites” .  But that’s it.  A footnote in a resume.   Otherwise, in all of his moving and shaking discussions of the blogosphere (most of which are very insightful and inciteful—I’m an ardent reader of his) there’s not even a faint casting of Xanga as even a small star in a puny constellation in the twinkling blogosphere.  Nada. 

Now perhaps John doesn’t want to toot his own horn.  But then again, I’m getting the feeling that Xanga, for its co-founders like John and Genius et. al., has served mainly as their learning sandbox, aka kindergarten.  And that now, as they’re moving on into the more exalted undertakings worthy of the bloggerrati (Genius, aka Biz Stone is writing a book called "Blogging" available in September from Amazon.com), they’re no more mentioning Xanga as a concern than one would brag about the grade school one went to when applying for high-paying, high-powered job. 

So here we remain in blogging kindergarten, yes?  Yes and no.  We, you and I, choose to participate—but we are not confined.  None of us here are in control of the Xanga domain or server (as an “independent blogger” worthy of bloggerati attention would be) and thus we are all subject to the vicissitudes of the decision-makers.  But many of us, nonetheless, have formed real links and relationships with one another that will prevail even if ever Xanga should fail.  The bloggerati ignores us, but we continue, as a blogging community, to achieve a cultural, and in some cases, literary significance despite their haughty slight of us.  And slight it is because the statistics are here: 80,000 to 100,000 members and more than a million page hits a day .  Bloggerati beware: ignore such gross statistics at your own peril.   

Well, unlike John, I’m not reluctant to toot my own horn.  I have tooted and toyed a lot with Xanga.  I have from time to time and will yet again incorporate a live mobile webcam into my blog and a realtime chat applet therein; I’ve had three-blogs-in-one (LiveJournal and Blogger subsumed under Xanga); I’ve sponsored my own (software, domain, and server) GreyMatter blog in the Xanga header; I’ve got some Xanga games going as a side entertainment; I’ve scheduled a croning agent to blog for me unattended and have already scheduled Xanga posts years into the future; and I’ve even blogged wirelessly amidst the grateful dead from a locked-up cemetery the night of a Halloween.  And, God and Goddess willing, I’m just beginning.  Hey, I don’t see any of the bloggerati doing the innovative things I’ve done and the many cool, creative, and innovative things so many of you are doing on your blogs on a daily basis. 

So you want to know what I think?  Screw the bloggerati !   We are having more fun!  Oh yes, they are angling for fame and/or the revenue model to usher them into opulence.  And I’ve no doubt that some of them (and by well-wishes, hopefully, John) will succeed.  But we, the many each of us, but moreover, we as a community are an exciting vibrant phenom the likes of which has never before been seen…for…

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
on whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world for ever, it seems.

-- Arthur O'Shaughnessy