Don't Back Down

There are all sorts of reasons that you might like Plurk and dislike Twitter - or, as is often the case, the other way around.

A number of people - notably the Twitterati - will argue that Plurk doesn't have an API, or it's too colorful, or it's like a funhouse. Whatever. Pick your reason. It doesn't really matter. There is one thing that sets Plurk apart from Twitter, and one thing only. Yes, there are many smaller reasons, but there is one very significant point that most people seem to push under the rug, to try and ignore, but it's the point that is staring everyone in the face, and that the refuse to accept.

Plurk is about the conversation. It's about the relationship. Twitter allows you to distance yourself, while Plurk does not. It's as simple as that.

Read "The Real Secret to Plurk's Appeal over Twitter" »

If you've been reading the blog for the last little while, you know that I've been hanging out on Plurk recently. Naturally, that means that I have been playing with Plurk as well, and trying to integrate it into my daily routine. When I used Twitter, it meant that I used Twitterfeed to create Tweets from the entries that I posted here. The problem is that Plurk has no such interface, as it doesn't have an API, so no such solution exists.

Luckily, Plurk power-user Ryan Lim came to the rescue. Not long ago, he released RLPlurkAPI, a PHP-based API into Plurk. It's not an official API, but it's good enough to allow outside services to access Plurk from the outside. It isn't Twitterfeed either, but what it did was allow people such as myself to see that it's possible to access the system from the outside. Unfortunately, I still couldn't do it, and I needed some more help.

Read "Integrating Your Movable Type Site with Plurk" »

It's almost dangerous writing this as I do (in advance, I mean), because in so doing, I run the risk of having some of these things done by the time it actually gets published. One of the items - I'll tell you which in a minute - already had to be updated slightly from my original request, since it's already been fixed. I'm not complaining, mind you, as it means that Plurk is moving forward and continuing to roll out updates to the service in response to user requests. So here are mine.

First, let me say that I understand that the service is new. I've said that all along. I also understand that some of you don't necessarily like the service, and that's okay too. I'm just passing along some ideas for what I think would make things work even better, because quite frankly, I think it works pretty darn good, seeing as how it's only been around since January, and only in true live mode for the last ten days or so. Prior to that, it was on a development server, and it wasn't ready for the load that it's seen. Now, on with the list!

Read "A Wishlist for Plurk Nirvana" »

The latest news online is the emergence of Plurk in the realm of social sites. Heck, I don't even know if that's the right term. But it allows you to find and connect to others, so that makes it social enough for me, and you'll just have to pardon my ignorance if I happened to classify it incorrectly.

The about page at Plurk is simple - it's less than a half-page (depending on the size of your monitor) and simply defines the site as A really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life in deliciously digestible chunks. Straightforward enough for you? In practice, it's like a competitor to Pownce and Twitter (yes, jaiku too, but since they are still in closed beta, and no one takes them seriously, I can't really say).

So the big question is: Which one is for you? That's the tough question to answer. Luckily, you don't have to pick just one, but chances are you'll use one more than the others.

Read "A Brief Look at Plurk, Pownce and Twitter" »

The problems with Twitter are almost legendary. But a funny thing happened last week during their latest bout. As the popular Adobe AIR application Twhirl advised users to reduce requests to somewhere around a third of the normal rate so that users wouldn't experience errors on Twitter, another social application started to be mentioned. A lot.

Suddenly, users everywhere were talking about Plurk. Some people say that it came from Leo Laporte. Some say it was Scoble (evidence such as this tweet seem to indicate it was Leo). I think that I heard it first from Mack Collier, but I'll be honest - it could have been any number of people. Mack was likely just the most vocal that I heard (and he could have heard it from Leo, Scoble or any number of others himself. The fact is, Plurk started to emerge at just the right time, and now I'm convinced. It was just a day or so earlier that Plurk actually started to ramp things up.

Read "Moving from Twitter to Plurk (and the like)" »