Plurking My Days Away

August 18th, 2008

hellohelloe! in between crazed attempts to cram my entire room into two suitcases, teary final meetings with loved ones as well as other frantic preparations for a long 4 years away in the US of A, i am here to introduce to you all the best ever micro-blogging tool i’ve had the pleasure of using :) it’s called Plurk, and it’s that orange-colored widget that’s been on my sidebar for a few months now.

i’ve been meaning to write this review for the longest time, but i’ve been putting this off. apologies to all the curious folks who’ve been emailing me and leaving comments asking me how to work Plurk and what it’s all about :( i actually told them all to wait for this post that i would be putting up “in a few days time” (ya i’ve been saying that for so long now, SORRY :( !!), but i think most of them went already ahead and figured out Plurk by themselves :P or at least, i hope they have!

in a nutshell, Plurk is like a mini-blogging site where you can post your updates (aka Plurking) either through the website or from your mobile phone. then, your Plurks will be displayed on your Plurk page (aka your Timeline) for your Plurk friends to see and interact with, OR your Plurks can also be displayed on your blog, should you want a display widget on your blog like i did. you can Plurk anything at all - what you’re doing at the moment, how you’re feeling, a question that you would like feedback for, your thoughts and opinions, etc. it’s a little bit like blogging, but a whole lot more instantaneous, mobile and random!

this sounds a little bit like Twitter and any other similar SMS-update/micro-blogging tools, but where Plurk differs is through two major features: one, its concept of a community timeline; two, it is feedback/comments enabled. i’m going to explain these two features first, and then later on i’ll explain a few other nifty things in Plurk that i really like.

1. THE TIMELINE

Plurk’s Timeline concept is something that’s really quite genius and is the backbone to the entire site. it confused me like hell the first time i logged into Plurk, but after some guidance from the almighty Puppy who introduced me to Plurk, i saw how simple it really was. it’s mind-boggling because it’s so simple.. kinda like when the iPod first came out and people couldnt wrap their minds around the one-button interface. anyways this is how the timeline looks:

the blue area is the timeline, and those white blurbs of text are plurks by me and my friends. it’s displayed in chronological order, with the ones on the left being the most recent plurks, and the further you go right, the older the plurks are.

clicking on the timeline and dragging left or right will take you through the timeline. this is helpful for navigation and catching up on plurks that you may have missed while you were away. you can go months and months back into your timeline if you so wish, just by clicking and dragging. it’s easy and smooth, apparently a programming wet dream (puppy not my words!!!).

your timeline will have your plurks, obviously, but it will also show plurks by your friends. i love it because i can be updated with whatever my friends are doing just by going into one single page, kinda like a compilation of everyone’s Facebook Status updates that is sorted chronologically. in this way, Plurk does away with all the fun frills of all other social networking sites out there, and focuses on what matters most: keeping in touch with your friends and loved ones. and um, people-stalking :P

2. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS ENABLED

i loooooove this function. i’ve used a couple of micro-blogging tools that didnt allow feedback, but i quickly grew disinterested because it was like talking to a wall. with Plurk, everytime you update, people can click on your plurk through their own timeline and leave you comments.

the boxed numbers are the number of comments each plurk has. red means there are unread comments. clicking on the plurk will open up the comments box immediately and on your timeline:

besides the mobile phone version, this is THE function in Plurk for me. i love the interaction i get from my friends (especially those who dont read my blog or never leave me comments, hmph) and also the conversations with them about our everyday activities and events. every time i’m bored or waiting in line somewhere, i get onto Plurk via my phone and just start plurking with my friends, because there’s ALWAYS people on Plurk to keep me company :D it’s like an SMS chatroom, but FREE! hahahaha! and not to mention more ORGANIZED!

this comments function is also such a convenient way of getting feedback. for instance, i once asked for laptop advice and suggestions, and i got over 250 comments from my friends on Plurk and even blog readers who signed up on Plurk just to help answer my question :D

3. FRIENDS AND FANS

in Plurkville, you have both friends and fans. friends are people whose Plurks you follow and who can also follow your Plurks; fans are people who follow your Plurks but you dont follow theirs. basically, fans are people whose plurks dont show up on your timeline, but they can see your plurks on theirs and they can respond to them too.

this is a good thing, because if you have something like 1000 friends, you’re going to have one very busy timeline that is cluttered up with plurks by people you dont even know. when Puppy was explaining Plurk to me, this is what he said, “so plurk is like, if you have to choose 5 of your most important friends from your facebook friend list, and add them as your plurk friend, then you will start to see the beauty of plurk.” and now that i am familiar with Plurk, i totally agree :) Plurk is cool because it keeps you in touch with the people you care most about and are close to, yet not completely alienating everyone else.

there are also extensive privacy settings where you can choose to add someone as a friend yet not follow their plurks, or you can choose to ‘mute’ certain plurks that are getting way too much feedback that you are not interested in, or you can block non-friends from viewing your timeline at all (disallowing fans) and many other settings that you can customize to your own liking.

4. SEARCH PLURKS

if you look back at the first picture of the timeline, there is a little ’search’ button on the lower right of the timeline. you can use this to search for any keywords throughout your own plurks, your friends plurks, or EVERRRYYYONE in Plurkville! i had fun searching for ‘Phelps’ yesterday and reading how many people think he’s not human :P

5. MOBILE PLURK

a godsend! Mobile Plurk is basically Plurk for mobile phones. i love it. i can Plurk everywhere and at anytime, get feedback instantly, start chatting with friends on Plurk when i’m bored (naeboo, artreyu, wolfx and ionstorm are the most amusing bunch!) and also follow or stalk out all my friends lives anytime and even when i’m not at the computer.

of course, this is only for 3G phones, and would be best if you had an unlimited data plan, because going online with your mobile phone can get pretty expensive especially if you start downloading videos or picture-heavy websites.

my favorite Mobile Plurk moment was when i went go-karting at Shah Alam with Martian and my brothers, and i was in a two-seater kart with Martian, and i got bored of helping him steer, so i started plurking and telling everyone i was karting. hahahaha the responses were like “huh why are you on your phone then?? go play!” hahahaha because i CAN’T KART, you guys!!! i always end up last… T___T

6. EVERYTHING ELSE

so, some other reasons why i like Plurk in general! i like the fact that Plurk compiles day-to-day, diarylike updates from my friends, yet is not intrusive. i really dont like the micro-blogging tools that spam SMSes to my phone each time someone updates, especially since i had a lot of spammy friends on those networks, and it made my phone bleep all the time :\ at least with Plurk, there is the timeline which i can check at my own free time. also, props for a wide range of privacy settings, as well as the Private Plurk function where you can send Plurks to just one person or a couple of people or even Cliques that you can pre-determine!

and i also love that some of my best friends are on Plurk. it’s so cool because i get to see what they’re up to at any time of the day, whether they’re in PJ or Penang or Canada or London. this is going to be especially useful for me when i’m away in the US and will desperately want to be in touch with friends and family back home :(

this concludes my n00b review of Plurk! do give me a holler if you decide to join Plurk! to all friends and family reading this, SIGN UP RIGHT NOW so that i get to keep an eye on you guys when i’m no longer in Malaysia!!! yes that means you too Martian -___-

you can sign up easily at Plurk via the widget on my sidebar :) or sign up here at my referral link if you want to donate me Karma Points! Karma Points will earn me some really cool smileys and features in Plurk :)

Entry Filed under: General

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