Girls Guide to Blogging

Recently I joined Plurk, a social media network which is quite similar to Twitter, a site I have been using for about a month. While Plurk has many cool features and many fewer technical issues (right now), I don’t think I will be trading in Twitter just yet.

What is the difference between Plurk and Twitter?

Plurk and Twitter are essentially the same, micro blogging platforms with different user interfaces and a few different “extras.”

• Both Twitter and Plurk limit each entry to 140 characters.
• Both Twitter and Plurk allow you to follow other people’s streams.
• On Twitter you “follow” people, on Plurk you add “friends” or follow someone as a “fan.” You must be approved to be someone’s friend. You will only notice a difference if the author has set privacy restrictions to allow only friends to view their plurks.
• Plurk displays your “timeline” in a linear fashion on an actual time line, as opposed to the vertical stream on Twitter.
• You can either publish a Plurk or comment directly on other Plurks, there is no Twitter equivalent to the Plurk comment system.
• You can publish thumbnail pictures in Plurks.
• You can update both with text messaging, you can even text them both at the same time: Ping.fm

Reasons to Love Twitter

• Twitter has a larger community of users.
• You always see the full “twit” an author posts. Plurks can be abbreviated forcing you to roll over them with your mouse to see the full entry.
• I find that Plurk is not as intuitive as Twitter, with more features come more complicated interfaces. I enjoy using Twitter more.
• I don’t care for the way the comment system is set up on Plurk, it seems a little bit cramped.
• Twitter allows more homepage customization.
• Karma…Plurk’s system for rewarding frequent users and users who recruit their friends to the service. As you gain more karma you have the option to use cuter emotioncons, change your Plurk “character” and even change your user name. I want my social media to come fully loaded. I am not interested in Plurk’s schemes to make me do their marketing and advertising, in exchange for a lame animated gif.
• There are more Twitter client programs, meaning you can more easily find new interesting Twitter feeds, and you can twit from entirely separate programs.

Reasons to love Plurk

• Sometimes I am not sure which of my twits people are replying to on Twitter…this will never be a problem with Plurk. The ability to comment allows for organized conversations around the “plurked” statement. You don’t have to scroll back through your replies to see people’s responses.
• Sexy interface…very sexy interface…except for the hideous Plurk illustrations, like the headless dog.
• I love that I can post pictures in my Plurks.
• Plurking is compatible with AIM and Google talk.
• On Plurk you can organize your friends into “cliques” and send out messages to specific cliques or view cliques together as a block.
• If you follow the Plurk founders (Mitsuhiko, Alvin, and Amix) you can learn about unpublished shortcuts and you will learn about updates and improvements in real time.
• I have to admit the more time you spend on Plurk the more bare-bones/minimalist Twitter starts to feel. But, am I just infatuated? There is a fine line between too many gadgets and features (facebook) and too few. I do have some concerns that Plurk will over do it if it focuses on increasing the quanitity of its features too fast.