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DISTINCTIVE FEATURES Xuqa.com distinguishes itself from facebook in various ways. First, there is an active and vibrant community consisting of students from schools all over the U.S. This is manifested in "blogs" or the "gossip" section of the web site, where any topic from personal problems to sexual advice and off-color humor is discussed. The blogs are overwhelmingly filled with "off-color" material but occasionally less risque material. XuQa UK and Ireland / XuQa Canada While Xuqa is primarily for USA users, there is also a "Xuqa UK and Ireland"and a "Xuqa Canada". While these other two websites have not proven to be as successful as Xuqa USA, they already have a healthy following. e-Marriage and e-Divorce A persistent part of this "xuqa subculture" is the "e-marriage" by members of the xuqa community. This constitutes a Virtual Marriage in the digital realm of xuqa. As a result, the e-hubby and e-wife usually change their display name to include the others surname. With e-marriages, a new phenomenon has emerged, E-divorce s. Monikers and XuQalebrities Many members also modify their display names with many interesting and distinctive Moniker s -- nicknames-- usually in form of outrageous ideals or even in the form of reflecting personal ideologies. A well-known person on the Xuqa blogs is referred to as a "Xuqalebrity" -- a term started by one of the original Xuqalebrities and then incorporated into the official XUQA culture by the creators. Peanuts Also, there is an economy of "peanuts" on Xuqa. You can earn more peanuts by inviting more friends. They have an API where you can buy certain gifts for people with peanuts, including "xpods", handcuffs, blowup dolls, beer, and bottles of vodka. Peanuts can also be given to friends if they request them, thus bringing a system of trading to XuQa. In the fall of 2005, XuQa experienced a "peanut shortage" where many members had expended their allotment of peanuts. Some members who had not expended their peanuts and had an abundance, were then found and their services where then put to use. This created an internal supply of peanuts where few users had acquired a substantial amount of peanuts ranging from 30,000 to 2 million and were trading peanuts for various gifts and services. After the peanut shortage, the creators rewarded XuQa members with "Christmas Peanuts" based on amount of logins ranging from a gift of 1,000 peanuts to 15,000 peanuts. Party Pics On the main login page you can see "Party Pics" which include the most recent pictures uploaded by members of the xuqa community. Pictures uploaded by members can be commented on and rated "hot" or "not". Kissing and Tickling Also, Xuqa allows members to "kiss" or "tickle" one another, whereupon on the user's next login they see a kiss or tickle from another member. They can respond by ignoring it or kiss/tickling the member back. This frequently results in "kiss/tickle" wars where users continually kiss/tickle one another back and forth. XUQALEBRITIES The term XuQalebrity was coined by one of the prominent bloggers on the site to describe a group of bloggers that seemed to use the site more frequently than most, and were easily recognized throughout the XuQa community. The word itself is a fusion of the words XuQa and Celebrity. The most prominent XuQalebrities usually have an abundant amount of profile views, and almost always have a minimal amount of friends listed. They tend to have a lot of blogs written about them in both a positive and negative connotation. Those considered XuQalebrities often band together and are friends with one another. XuQalebrities are unofficially broken down into 3 categories: Original- most prominent members of the XuQa community that were the original members of the site who contributed and laid the foundation for XuQa's current culture of off-color humor. Current- Members who are currently popular and are continuing the tradition set by the original members to maintain the site's off color humor. Retired- These are members who were once popular (either Original or former Current members) and have now deactivated their accounts due to various reason. These members are usually missed and "gossip" blogs are written in homage to them. (rumors however surface as to the true nature of certain Xuqalebrities' deactivation-as some members create new profiles in an anonymous fashion). SCANDALS Another distinctive feature of XuQa are the scandals. These scandals may range from new found information about an existing XuQalebrity, an existing member, or new members to issues brought up in past blogs. Most scandals will only run for about a week, sometimes less. There are others though, that have lasted entire months, and a few in particular that have been with XuQa since the creation of the website. There are a few scandals that have lasted the test of time and continue to rise from the ashes to once again, stir controversy in the XuQaworld. The Porn Scandal This scandal was really the first to be introduced to the community of XuQa. It began with XuQa users questioning the identity of one member's sex and later became a full on controversy. The entire scandal really took steam when the member in question created a blog titled "Am I Hot?". This blog was seemingly harmless, yet when a member disagreed and told her that she was not indeed hot, the member in question retaliated in a storm of insults. This was only the beginning. In later months the scandal resurfaced and new information was brought in. With recent developments, it turns out the member in question is involved with the porn industry, further creating controversy in the XuQa world. The LC Scandal This particular scandal emerged really from out of nowhere. One day while blogging, a particularly large and to some, unaesthetic looking, female member began to state many controversial statements in random blogs, this caused a few members to retaliate. The month that followed was laced with blogs bashing and praising the female when it finally (Or for the time being) ended in early November. This scandal resurfaced recently with the return of the female victim. To this day it is one of the most known, and talked about, scandals on XuQa. The Ugly Scandal This scandal was started by one lone XuQalebrity in response to the abundance of blogs titled "Hottest guys of XuQa" and "Hottest girls of XuQa" and quickly became one of the most hated, and celebrated, blogs in XuQa history. The original concept was to create a list of the top ten ugliest girls of XuQa as voted by none other than, XuQa members. Other members did not take kindly to this form of slander and swore to put an end to it. This resulted in weeks of controversy which finally ended when XuQa deleted the blog and all evidence of its existence. The memory of the "UGLIEST GIRLS OF XUQA" blog still remains to this day and is the founding XuQalebrities claim to fame. The UWA Scandal This scandal arose from The University Of Wales, Aberystwyth's involvement with the site (also known as University of Wales, Aberystwyth). Put simply, there were numerous blogs started slandering individuals to the point that it could only be described as outright bullying. One such case involved someone posting a link to a female students profile claiming that they were willing to sleep with anyone. Subsequently, the girl received numerous house calls from random male students and non-students requesting sexual relations. On March 9th 2006, UWA prevented all access to XuQa from the University network quoting the following: "''Over the last two weeks U.W.A staff have received an increasing number of complaints about material being posted on the XuQa web site. On examination it was found that a number of postings were personal attacks on members of U.W.A, and that even though they were posted anonymously they will have been written by other members of U.W.A. ''Having taken legal advice it has been confirmed that a number of these items are defamatory. As they have now been specifically drawn to our attention, U.W.A as the ISP publishing the items would have a case to answer at law if we continued to make them available. As such we have blocked access to XuQa from the University network at Aberystwyth from 9th March. ''XuQa has also been identified as a serious source of Spam, and has on several occasions impacted on the email service at U.W.A. Attempts to contact them for help in solving this have proved fruitless, so we have had no alternative but to embargo email generated from them. ''Update on 10th March: XuQa have contacted us acknowledging that they know why we have blocked them and confirming that they will be relaunching their site soon as a properly moderated one. If and when they do so we will be happy to re-allow it at U.W.A''." On the 23rd March, XuQa was unblocked by the UWA server after receiving assurances that the websites moderation procedure had been improved. However, this unblocking lasted less than a day as it became clear that offensive and defamatory messages were still being left on the site, and as of the 24th access was denied again. 1 Scandals have been with XuQa since the beginning of its creation and provide endless entertainment to its users as well as popularity status. Many of the XuQa members that have participated in these scandals have risen to XuQalebrity status, therefore not only providing a source of entertainment, but also a way to achieve status. THE "UNLISTED" DEBATE The creators of XuQa have recently enabled an "UNLISTED" option, which allows new members to create accounts without having a college or university email address. The option was introduced by the moderators to promote inclusiveness, despite the additonal boom of new members who are minors and others who are beyond the age range of traditional college students. Current members have debated the purpose of the option, citing that minors have access to pornographic photos and inappropriate forums catered toward a college audience. Others have expressed that the option only depletes XuQa of its dignity, pointing to a rise in offensive and profane material. An Incident An incident related to the "UNLISTED" option involves the additon of older students and alumni members. XuQa users have discussed the controversy surrounding a 40-year old registered at Southern Illinois University. This member is accused of sending inappropriate messages to other members, particularly young women. The accused has defended his right to remain on the site, saying "Many issues have been brought up because of my age, size, color," but he "will not be threatened or forced to comply with what certain individuals contend as the 'right' thing." He goes on to say, "Each of us is old enough to decide what is best for our concerns." It is unknown whether the "UNLISTED" option was introduced because of competition with the Facebook, which recently merged the high school and college websites in order to "help people keep up with more of their friends". DEACTIVATION A surprising number of "XuQalebrities" have deactivated their accounts, for varied reasons. Some deactivate for personal reasons; others for academic reasons or for other commitments which keep them from logging into Xuqa. Still others deactivate out of sheer boredom. In addition, some users deactivate their account, only to start a new account to avoid whatever sort of reputation he or she may have gained. Indeed, deactivation was at one point a minor Fad among Xuqa users, triggered by the deactivation of one of XuQa's more prominent XuQalebrities. EXTERNAL LINKS
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