I first started blogging on a site called xanga and my user name was Prometheus. I was there from the beginning, that is, when xanga began, and there were only a handful of us. Later, when we were overrun by teenagers and the Chinese (I’m not kidding) we used to call ourselves “xangarelics.” But at the beginning it was pure blogging. Ordinary people with interesting and complex thoughts writing not about one thing, as is the conventional advice if you want to attract “customers,” but we wrote about everything. It was what blogging should be.
That was the past. Xanga is a ghost town now. The site moved, and tried to reinvent itself, but now even old readers can’t find it. It’s a ghost town, but it still exists.
Suddenly, I started getting emails that people are commenting on some of these old posts!
I’m popular again.
Wow, awesome weblog layout! How long have you ever been running a blog for? you made blogging glance easy. The total glance of your site is fantastic, let alone the content!
What are they selling?
Remarkable! Its really remarkable article, I have got much clear idea about from this post. – from “insoles for high arch”
Thanks for a marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author. I will ensure that I bookmark your blog and definitely will come back in the future. I want to encourage continue your great job, have a nice day! – from Foot Pronation.
I used to be able to find good advice from your blog articles. – from Hay Day Hack Tool
That wasn’t very complimentary. I’m not buying their app.
Whеn I originally comented ӏ seеm tto have clicked the -Notify mе hen neww comments ɑгe added- checkbox annd fгom now οn ԝhenever ɑ сomment іs added I get four emails ԝith tthe samе comment. There ɦas tto be a wɑy уou arre aable to remove mе from thаt service? Apprciate іt!
The first comment from that person. A trick, I think. I’m not falling for it.
Howdy would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re utilizing? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you suggest a good web hosting provider at a reasonable price? Thanks, I appreciate it!
And
Good blog you have got here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours nowadays. I truly appreciate individuals like you! Take care!! – from Spartan Wars Cheat
{sigh}
Andy Glasser 
My Xanga blog still exists, I’m sure, but no one is reading it. I copied all my posts into WP files before the site went belly-up so I didn’t lose anything. I barely remember the place now. But, yeah, my advice would be not to buy what they’re selling, either.
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It really is funny to compare what we were doing back then with what blogging has become. Blogging back then was about thinking out loud to people and hearing what they thought back (or at least, that’s what it was like to me). It was exciting to be read…a little of it was about popularity, but it was also just…validation for your thoughts! (re: my post from the other day…I matter!)
I suppose that’s why people like Tweets and so on (the instant gratification of putting in a few seconds of thought, and getting a gajillion retweets, or whatever they’re called), but I loved the feeling that I was reading someone’s diary…and sharing my own.
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And there was so much good writing. I can’t find people I like to read anymore. I don’t tweet, but one of the things I don’t like about facebook is the superficiality it inspires. Blogs used to be short, but long enough to say something of substance. So much of facebook is just “here is what is happening right now, what I’m eating, what happened to me today,” with no introspection. And instagram is another one. I like photography, but it really isn’t the same as 1,000 words.
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Yeah. I think the anonymity for me was a critical piece of it. It allowed a vulnerability that I never would have had if people I knew were reading me (a few people in my real life crept into my blogging life and after that I had to restrict what I said…but until then, it was freeing).
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