Are You Plurking Kidding Me?

Here’s another 140-character social media site to hang out at called Plurk. Plurk is like Twitter in that you have 140-characters to write a message.

With Plurk however, you have a timeline that scrolls from left to right, most recent Plurks on the left and historical plurks on the right. So when you hold your mouse down on the timeline, you can scroll to the right through historical Plurks.

Hover your mouse over the timeline at either end and you’ll be able to page through time as well as get back to the start of the timeline quickly.

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In their own words:

What is Plurk?

A really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life, and follow the events of the people that matter to you, in deliciously digestible short messages called plurks.

Below are some of the features of Plurk.

Qualifiers

Plurk has qualifiers that you can select from before you write. When you write a message your plurk says something like this, BillS2000 says Plurk rocks!! Says, being the qualifier. Here are the other qualifiers you can use with a message:

Plurk Page

There’s a plurk page. Click on a plurk and you’ll see a little link called plurk page. This takes you to a page with all the responses listed below a plurk.  Kind of a Twitter resemblence.

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Response Counter

The responses to a plurk are contained in a drop-down box with a scrolling list. There’s also a counter that displays to the right of a plurk that indicates how many responses a plurk has.

Mute a Plurk

In the drop-down window of a plurk there is a mute button. When you mute a plurk, you won’t be notified of anymore responses from that plurk.

Media in a Plurk

You can embed a photo in a plurk, say from flickr or a video from YouTube in a plurk. When a photo or video link is in a plurk you’ll see a thumbnail of the image.

Privacy
The Plurk privacy and options allows you to disable comments to a plurk, place a private plurk to a select group of folks or even to just yourself.

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Other Features

Go back in time as well as filters.  There’s a little calendar that helps you skip back and forward to specific dates of plurks as well as your drop-down filter list to just view certain plurks by filter.

I like the drop-down arrow next to a persons name that shows a quick view of their profile and a few actions that can be performed.

Want to put a Plurk widget on your blog?  Edit your profile and look under the Widget tab.

Cliques

Click on the Invite button that appears on your Plurk dashboard and you’ll have the ability to create a clique and add folks to that clique.  Kind of a private area(s) that you can use to make everyone feel excluded.  Just kidding.  This is a way to group people together.

and you’ll get to the Clique screen:

Karma and Emoticons

Karma is a good thing on Plurk. The more karma you get, the more stuff Plurk gives you including more emoticons. If you put your mouse over your Karma you’ll get tips on how to raise your Karma. Here is the list:

• Responses from other plurkers will gain you karma (forced conversation, which can be good)
• Karma will be lowered if you request friendship and get rejected
• Losing followers will lower your karma
• Plurking interesting stuff and getting followers will increase your karma
• Having karma over 10 will enable you to title your timeline
• Getting more karma will enable you to use exclusive emoticons and other features
• Uploading a profile picture will gain you more karma
• Updating your profile (location, birthday, etc.) will gain you more karma
• Having karma over 40 will enable you to change your display name
• Try to plurk regularly (each day) but don’t plurk too much (over 30 times per day)
• Having fun on plurk will increase your karma (hint: use dancing bananas, and who doesn’t like dancing bananas)

That’s about it for this blog post on Plurk.  There’s plenty to check out and I’ve just presented a few features.  So if you need another social media site in your life, check out Plurk.

Some Plurk Links

Plurk: Unique or Just Another Twitter Clone? by ReadWriteWeb

Plurk Karma Secrets Unraveled

Five Reasons Plurk Is Better Than Twitter And Vice-Versa by Jason Falls

Want to find out whether your Twitter friends are already using plurk?

FeedTwitter – is a little service that allows you to link Twitter and Plurk to your other activities.

5 reasons why you should be using Plurk – by Samir Balwani

A Few Things That Irk Me About Plurk by ciaran

Plurk Firefox Sidebar by Blog on a Stick (cool trick)

Plurk v Twitter: A First Look by Caroline Middlebrook

Need some friends on Plurk?  Look at the Interesting Plurkers link at the top-right of Plurk.  Also, Maki (Dosh Dosh) started a list the other day that was over 100 and today is well over 500.  WOW!!  Grab a friend or two.  That list begs me or someone to write code that will loop through the list and add people slowing as friends.  You have to watch out though because Plurk only wants you to add around 30 a day plus it affects your Karma.  If you have unaccepted friend requests, it’s bad for your Plurk Karma.   🙂

My two cents: I think the intrigue with karma will die, so the kind folks at Plurk should drop it now.  Also, I don’t think people will distinguish between friends and fans.  I say drop it now.  Well, we’ll see, maybe I’m missing something magical about those two features of Plurk.

If you want, Add me as a friend and I’ll add you as well.