Doximex.Com: I dePlurked myself and why

Sunday, February 8, 2009

I dePlurked myself and why

I have deactivated my Plurk account 5 months ago but this item has been of lower priority I can only find time for it now.

Here are some reasons why I deactivated my account from this very interesting service.

Just a quick note: maybe it’s unfair to compare Plurk with Twitter all the time but I can’t help it.

1. Audience

Some social media power users are active on Twitter, but not on Plurk or FriendFeed. Spending time on Plurk rather than Twitter means my information gathering is not as efficient.

2. Twitter ecology

Twitter grew 400% last year, and so did its ecology: all the applications built around Twitter.

Plurk doesn’t have this.

3. Cross-platform issue

When I want to plurk, I want the plurk tweeted too. This can be solved by using a third-party service such as ping.fm

However, ping.fm is unstable some time.

(1), (2) and (3) above are not Plurk’s faults. It’s just unfair that Plurk was born much later than Twitter.

Now, here are some issues I was having directly involving Plurk.

4. Weird mascots

Twitter uses bird, owl and whale for their design. Kinda cute the bird is.

Plurk pushes this further by introducing fish, lizards, ancient animals, beholders, alien-like creatures… It’s too much to endure. I would not want any of my profile appeared to my colleagues or grad school administrative or potential employers as unprofessional.

5. Too slow, compared to Twitter

The whole idea of micro-blogging / public timeline is to broadcast your message fast. Plurk interface is definitely more interesting than that of Twitter but it’s much slower to load.

6. Privacy option

Maybe it’s just me but I have the need to, at certain points of time, hide all my statuses from public view. Plurk doesn’t provide this while Twitter does.

7. Reward system and penalties

Plurkers receive Karma for plurking, and they receive penalties (Karma reduction) for not plurking.

Sadly, but I don’t feed my family on social media, let alone Plurk. I can’t spend my time with Plurk everyday to reach Nirvana and maintain my position there.

A reward system is pretty, but the penalty is ugly, drives me away from the service.

***

So there, I stopped at 60+ Karma and reset my entire account.

I’m not commenting on Plurk’s possibility of success. I was just telling my experience with this service.

Good luck anyway, Plurk team. All the best. TaiTran