Plurk: Your life on the line
Update (Feb 2010): Wow, I’d forgotten all about Plurk. I can’t quite remember why, but I ended up abandoning Plurk in favour of Twitter again. I’ve left the post here for the sake of completeness, but I’m most definitely a Twitterer :)
Yes, I know, this looks like a blatant rip-off of Darren Rowse’s post about Plurk, but I’ve been using Plurk for the past month too and thought I’d share my thoughts. But first, I want to say thanks to Darren for pointing me in the direction of this new-to-me in the first place!
I was a bit of a latecomer to the whole twitter scene and, when Twitter started getting very unreliable, there was that link from Darren to a new service called Plurk. I’m not normally one for flitting around between services, but the combination of frustration and new ground got hold of me.
So what’s Plurk been like then? First thing to say is that my friends/followers list is much smaller than on Twitter: 90 on Twitter, 32 on Plurk. Despite that, though, the conversation on Plurk just seems to flow much more easily. Here’s one reason why: Plurk nests your conversations under the original message. So when I ask a question, all the responses are attached to that question, whereas everything just arrives in one long stream in Twitter. Plurk’s kind of like a forum rather than a soapbox in that respect.
I say that’s only one reason the conversation flows more easily because I don’t think there’s any technical wizardry behind the other: people on Plurk just seem much more willing to talk. I could get a good conversation going with my friends on Twitter, but on Plurk I’m constantly talking with people I don’t know other than in the Plurkiverse. Is there a reason behind that? I don’t know… I don’t think so… it might just be that it’s a different user group, or perhaps the organisation of the conversation (i.e. nested) is promoting good conversations in some way.
In his post, Darren talks about how Plurk has been driving traffic to his blogs. I have to say I haven’t really tried generating traffic through Plurk, but I’ve seen 62 unique visits from there in the last month. On the other hand, every new post from Geek-Speak is posted on Twitter, and I’ve only seen 70 visits from there in the same time period. Conclusion? Even with little effort, Plurk is getting close to Twitter in terms of traffic referrals. I wonder what could be done if I put my mind to it?
Does this mean that Plurk is a replacement for Twitter? Yes and no. I’m definitely plurking far more often than I tweet, and if I had to choose one site over the other I would choose Plurk, but I’m very reluctant to “abandon” my Twitter followers. Plurk is different from Twitter… more feature-rich, less “fire and forget”, and easier to strike up a conversation in. Twitter has the advantage of being where I have more contacts, but the disadvantage of being a bit flaky at the moment. Is one better than the other? I know this answer will look like a cop-out, but it really comes down to personal taste. Some people love Twitter and can’t get on with Plurk. For some it’s the other way round. For me, there are advantages and disadvantages to both and, while I have a slight preference for Plurk, I actually like both… so, for now, both get to stay.
Join the conversation on Plurk and Twitter. Bear in mind, you are much more likely to get a quick response on Plurk :)
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{ 5 comments }
I’ve been using HelloTxt ALOT lately – other than in replying to Twitter folks. Wonder if/when HelloTxt will start working with Plurk as well.
Until then… I have Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and Jaiku being updated regularly… I spose I could update linkedin and plaxo as well – but I could care less about those sites.
Hmmmm…..
I still want an “all in one” solution. Something that lets me receive and respond to all my friend’s status updates in one simple solution… regardless of what they use. So far HelloTxt as been the closest.
update:
just saw that hellotxt does plurk as well. maybe its time i try this plurking idea out.
I gave up on Twitter. It was too hard to use from my mobile device and too hard to keep track of the threads of conversations. the Twitterbots got just plain annoying too.
My name is FearandParentinginLasVegas and I’m a plurkaholic.
Good to see you on Plurk, JD.
LOL @Fear & Parenting – perhaps we should start Plurkaholics Anonymous? I do get your point about difficulties in using Twitter. I also find it frustrating that some of my followers are just spam bots – it’s becoming necessary to “prune” them from time to time :) Oddly, I haven’t seen any of that on Plurk – have you?
I gave up on Twitter. It was too hard to use from my mobile device and too hard to keep track of the threads of conversations. the Twitterbots got just plain annoying too.
My name is FearandParentinginLasVegas and I'm a plurkaholic.
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