Welcome to the Monkey House

As the Microblogging World Turns

I’m really starting to enjoy Plurk. I wasn’t sure what to think of Plurk in the beginning. It’s different than Twitter and I enjoy it for it’s differences, but also for its similarities.

For those of you unfamiliar with Plurk, it’s one of the newer entries in the microblogging landscape currently dominated by Twitter. Twitter is very barebones. It allows it’s user to post updates in the form of 140 character messages. Other users can reply to the message, adding their own thoughts. Really that’s about it.

Plurk is similar to Twitter. They maintain the same 140 character limit on messages and allow readers to reply. But Plurk goes beyond that. Plurk threads the replies to a message so readers can easily follow the conversation that is taking place between multiple users and add their own two cents. This is something that is sorely missing with Twitter. It’s hard to follow conversations. Each message and reply is basically its own separate island. Twitter’s design does nothing to foster a larger conversation.

Plurk also incorporates something they call "Karma". Karma is a score used to indicate what sort of member of the Plurk community one is. Karma is much like a plant. It starts out small, but through tending to one’s account, updating often, adding new friends, replying to others’ comments, and generally being friendly, one’s Karma score increases. The higher one’s Karma is the more option they get in regards to their account. Generally I feel they biggest advantage of a higher Karma score is for bragging rights among friends.

The biggest saving grace for Twitter has been its community. I love my friends on Twitter. I have great conversations with people and have met some really great friends. This has been where other microblog competitors, like Jaiku or Pownce, have failed for me.

For me, Plurk is different. I have a great group of friends on Plurk. Some of these people follow me on Twitter and some of them don’t. But the conversations on Plurk are different. They are more in depth. They don’t seem to be as limited as in Twitter. It’s a great community.

I’m not sure if there will be room for two or more microblog services, probably. Each of the two I primarily use offer something a little different. Twitter has its simplicity and Plurk has its ability to foster deeper conversations. For now, I plan to stick with both.

Add me:

• Plurk = http://plurk.com/redeemByURL?from_uid=12344&check=-2072844589&s=1
• Twitter = http://twitter.com/jasonwert