How to Hack Xanga, Kinda

Posted on by

Part 2

Danny asked me how to import Xanga entires to Facebook… and so, here goes my informative post on answering that question.

If you go to “My Notes”, you’ll see on the left hand column the “Notes Settings”. When it asks where you want to import the notes from, you type in:

http://www.xanga.com/rss.aspx?user=username

And just replace ‘username’ with your user name. For me, it looks like:

http://www.xanga.com/rss.aspx?user=joshkimdotorg

This has been a not-so well known feature that Xanga provided ever since I could remember. This RSS feed only shows the most recent ten posts (it was five before…), so if you want to import anything before that, you won’t be able to.

Let the “hacking” commence

Basically, you can also use this to get around the not-so-well planned Xanga Lock feature. (Oh man… my Xanga-hate post has been waiting too long… just a little longer…) Anyway, this information is purely for educational purposes, and blah blah blah you can’t sue me blah blah blah it’s a feature blah blah blah.

I hate Xanga Lock. I even made up a random account just to spite the people who use it… and now I use it to visit random people’s site just so that they’d look at their anti-stalker stalking tool (oh, the irony… the stalkee becomes the stalker…) and click through to my content.

Regardless, one day, I thought this one through: I wonder if the ad wizards at Xanga disabled RSS feeds for those that Xanga Locked their site… cuz after all, the guys that use Xanga Lock wouldn’t want their precious content seen by the crazy lunatics out there on the Internet. (= ME. [insert maniacal laughter here])

And lo, and behold, they didn’t. Who would have thunk it? (These guys took like 5 years (at least) to fix the horribly designed groups page… and they didn’t even do a good job of it… oh, right… not the Xanga tirade post yet…)

So, my lovelies, go “hack” away. Next time you get a screen like this and want to be extra sneaky… you know what to do.

Xanga Lock THIS

These days, I don’t even go to Xanga anymore… I just RSS feed all my friends and call it a day.

EDIT: AH HA! There is indeed (thank goodness) a way to disable your RSS feed… it really should be that if you enable Xanga Lock that your RSS feed should be turned off by default.

Anyway, if you want to turn off your RSS feed for your Xanga, go to Edit: Account Info, and then to Privacy. On the Privacy Page, select “no” for the RSS Feed, and save.

22 thoughts on “How to Hack Xanga, Kinda”

  2. Thanks. I read on another xanga that you could do this, but there were no instructions HOW? Such posts w/o supporting info are unworthy of my subs. :)

  3. so how do i read a page that has xanga lock? or do you have a generic name i can use to navigate sites with xanga lock?

  6. I love this. Thanks. But… theres no way to look at a users entries if they’ve disabled their RSS feed? :[

  7. Pingback: The New Dashalytics — Josh Kim dot Org

  8. Thanks,

    I shall show this to a computer saavy friend that I know (I am pathetic when it comes to computers).

    I know a female co-worker who uses Xanga, Livejournal and Myspace to ridicule another co-worker and I. The CEO does not want to waste money getting the company’s IT specialists to view the entries [anyway my office manager (male) informed the employee to remove the emails off the PUBLIC domain ASAP].

  9. Apparently, when Xangan turn on the lock there is no other way to hack into the page. Even the RSS won’t work as it is by default being turned off =( Anyone else have an idea how to hack into a locked page?

    [Another Privacy Paranoia Person]

  10. Pingback: How to Hack Xanga, Kinda (Part 2) — Josh Kim dot Org

  12. thx 4 the post. i found out my ex was confirmed a complete slut. :p

  13. hi,

    I don’t really mind if people initiate a lock. it makes me automatically not care about the content. I was wondering if maybe maybe you had any way of getting the IP addresses or at least pin-point locations of xangans who visit your site. Like I really just want to know who or where is this “Alabama” footprint, or “Florida” or “California” or “Korea, Republic of” you know?

    I know this post is like really old but if you know of a tracker i can use please help me.

    I too am the paranoid need-to-knower.

  14. Hi Janet,

    Sorry about the delay. I think my comments went a little wonky.

    To answer your question, I believe the only way to track those kinds of stats would be to use an external stat program, like Google Analytics. I don't know if Xanga does any of that (maybe premium, but why would you pay for such a… crappy service), but really, I think they have somewhere you can include the javascript files necessary for these tracking services.

  17. Man, after reading this.. I've realized people from elsewhere RSS feed my xanga page (it's kind of creepy.) sneaky sneaky people.

  19. hello.. i just want to know how to open a xanga site because when i go to the site it shows (xxxxxx has enabled Friends Lock) .. i hope you could email me so that i can give you details.. tnx

  20. I haven't looked at Xanga for a long while. I'm sorry, but I don't
    know how their backend looks anymore.

  21. sir pls help me because i want to save my marriage and it all depends here. im so desperate and apologize for the inconvenience.. pls email

  22. I don't know how to “open a xanga site”. At all. This blog post was about how Xanga was programmed poorly. And I believe this hole has been plugged.

    Even if I did email you privately, I don't know what else I can do for you. Sorry.