***EDIT: 11:36 PM = My bad. It's the fifteenth of JULY. JULY. So it's a MONTH and eight days, which does give more hope of earning enough money. Anyway, sorry. JULY 15. JULY.
So I found out something legitimately depressing today. Kathy brought to my attention that Xanga is in quite the financial pickle at the moment and if they can't earn $60K by the fifteenth of THIS month then they will no longer be able to afford the running and maintenance of this site and will shut down. Yeah. The ONE place I found to serve as a home for my thoughts, fears, anger, emotions, and otherwise life rants might be gone in 8 days and I had no idea. God, if this place shuts down where the hell else am I going to move on to to unload all my crazy? This has been my home since, what was it, 2003 or 2004? THAT'S TEN YEARS. THIS HAS BEEN MY EMOTIONAL HOME FOR TEN YEARS. I can't keep a written journal because 1) lack of security from the home life and 2) I think waaaaay too fast and write waaaaay too slow and sloppy. Typing is better. I've built a nest here, I don't want to lose it. Furthermore, there's the reality that if the site shuts down ALL of my posts that I've written since the beginning will be gone. THAT'S OVER 1300 POSTS. What the hell am I gonna do without the means to vent and the vented-out emotions to go back to so I can remind myself of what to do/not do?!
Then there's the possibility that they DO earn the $60K. Well, if they do -- and this would only work if they do BEFORE the fifteenth otherwise it's still a shut down -- then they'll relaunch the site with some new features by having it powered by WordPress. Now, I have a WordPress account but I've only written like, pfft, 3? 4? posts in there total? I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE LINK SAVED UNDER "MY SITES" IS HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE I'VE USED IT. And I never got into it because the feel of the site and controls just weren't for me (no offense). Xanga was much simpler and just very receptive of my moods and mindsets. But that's not what worries me. What worries me is that if Xanga IS saved, it will no longer be the free blogging site as it is now. Having an account will be free, so you can still read and subscribe to other accounts for free, but if you want to WRITE your own weblog posts you'll have to pay a membership fee of either $4 a month or $48 a year. Now while $4 a month sounds cheap, it is STILL nearly fifty bucks a year and that adds up. As it stands I probably can't afford that now! So I'm left with the choice of either leaving my mental home and all it's kept for me or PAYING money I don't have to have my emotional releases.
Dammit.
Xanga posted a link to their donation page where they explain everything about the situation and the reasons behind their forced choices; and in that post they have included a link of how to (for free) archive YOUR ENTIRE PAGE and all of its contents -- weblog, pulses, photos, audio, vidio -- and combine them into five links that you can then download ALLLL the data to your computer. So, while all the visual (i.e. layouts) is gone, you can at least save all your posts.
That was a huge saving grace to find because I did NOT want to lose my posts but found it hard to believe I'd be able to save 1300+ of them manually in less than 8 days. I already backed it up tonight but I've made a reminder in my phone to back it up one last time on the 14th (to be safe) just in case the site shuts down. They say if it does then the 15th will be the last day the site will be running (making me believe they wouldn't shut down till midnight their time).
Anyway, I felt the dire need to warn all of you just in case there was anything any of you would have liked to have saved from your own sites. I realize that as far as my group of friends go, I'm the only one who really developed such a link to the site (measured by how often and how much I share into it), but that isn't to say that there might not be a sense of loss to any of you, too.
*Sigh* I don't know what I'll do without this place (emotionally). It's been my home, my journal, my sanity for a full decade... I still have my LiveJournal and WordPress accounts but writing in those never felt as welcoming as it did here -- plus I don't know a single soul who still uses either of those sites. :/ I suppose I could make another BlogSpot for personal use and keep Simply-Zerah for my writing... I AM used to the handle of that site but... I get tired of the layouts there so much faster than I do here. I've always liked the look and feel options better here... ESPECIALLY this one. Damn this is a good one, it's gonna suck to lose it... It was the perfect combination of written and typed aesthetics :( And I enjoy the different profile pics per entry option as well...
I really, truly hope this place doesn't shut down... They've only raised just under $24,500 so the hope might be dwindling. I mean, it's an impressive number, but the odds of it getting another $40K in eight days aren't that strong... If it is saved I may just pay the monthly to stay. I can't imagine not having this place to write in... But fifty bucks... I'll have to see...
My dear Xanga... I truly hope this isn't the end for us. Ten years is too long to say goodbye now.
I wonder how much longer I'll have "Snoochie" to claim as my name...
Ten years...
Dammit...