Why Plurk Is Better Than Twitter

26 Jun, 2008 Social Networking, Stuff I Like

I started out this whole “social” networking experiment on Twitter because I had some friends there. I found that I could spend many hours watching the feed, checking out links that other people posted and posting my own and trying to network with other Twitterers. What I quickly learned was that Twitter, is not really that “social” at all, responses are far and few between unless you directly comment on someones tweet, I never knew if people liked my tweets or if they even checked out a link I posted. Then completely by accident I discovered Plurk. What makes Plurk different is that you get feedback, almost instantly, to anything that you post. I have been using Plurk for less than a month and I already have more friends there than on Twitter and we actually communicate! The whole Plurk mechanism for social networking is far superior to Twitters, by it’s very nature you can’t help but leave feed back and enter into discussions with people. If Twitter is going to survive the social networking boom that is going on right now it is going to have to offer up more unique perspective, because right now it is falling behind.

Here is a screenshot of my Plurk page, it has got a really great user interface:

If you decide to check out Plurk, tell them I sent you and add me with this link.

Comments

zoe

hey todd

i agree that twitter needs to catch up. esp. lately with everything breaking down! twitter can become an echo chamber if you aren't careful.

i haven't tried out plurk but i will now!

z
todd

Well Peggie, I would have to say that the plurk time line takes a little getting used too but once oyu get the flow I find it is easy to move back and forth to follow the conversations. As far as getting responses to plurks that can be a bit harder, I found that it took a while to get recognized as well but once it started I had a hard time keeping up. I respond a lot more than I plurk.

P.S. my plurk link is up in the Cyberstalking Tools section, friend me and I'll say good morning :)

tj, yeah the community is growing and it seems that the early adopters are very welcoming... see you on the line!
tj

I'm with you ... in the short amount of time on Plurk, I've interacted with more people than the MONTHS I've spent on twitter.

plurk user: teejayhanton
Peggie

I think I'm definitely missing something. Maybe I need a user manual or I'm just a different kind of thinker/learner. I can't seem to get any responses on plurk (although, admittedly maybe the way I say good morning isn't as fun as the way someone else says it?) and I get all confused on the time line.

I know I'my laying myself out on the line here, but I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I'm enjoying twhirl and get a decent amount of responses that way -- and i like the format -- it's easier for me to follow than the plurk timeline.

Please, I want to like plurk, I must be doing it wrong.

Peggie
Greg Hollingsworth

I am on both Twitter and Plurk and I see them as being useful for different things. Plurk at this point is a far more personal networking site (although it still has a fairly small user base compared to Twitter), yet with Twitter there is far more information being disseminated.

I think that most people will tend to stay with the network where their following is, for me at present it's twitter (600+ followers).

Plurk is a great idea, but at this point it doesn't have the community that Twitter does, yes, Twitter may not provide you with as much feedback, but the same could easily be said for Plurk, it's all dependent on the content you are submitting to the site. As with all social media, content is king.
todd

I never thought of it that way Tink, but you make a good point. I guess when you only have a small group you might as well be friends with everybody. I still think the Plurk model will be more successful, it's interface alone is leaps ahead of Twitter.
BellTinkR

I've heard it speculated that Twitter is too big now and you don't have the sense of community like it used to be. Plurk, on the other hand, is still fairly new and does not have the massive user base yet. It's kinda like city mouse/country mouse syndrome. There's a podcast I listen to called Push My Follow, and the most recent episode got into the differences between the two - I do believe they were a little more keen on Plurk than Twitter, as you are. You can find them at http://PushMyFollow.com if you are interested.

Tink *~*~*
My Mobile Adventures *~*~*
todd

Yeah I have almost lost all interest in Twitter. It gets updated when I post here or from Ping.fm.

Thanks for stopping by!
Chris

I couldn't agree with you more. The more I use Plurk, the less I even converse with friends on Twitter :(. I try and keep up with Twitter as much as I can, but it just isn't as fun or as lively as Plurk. At first I was a skeptic of if I would like plurk it all, it seemed I didn't have any friends, the timeline seemed a little confusing, and I thought it was just going to be boring. Once I got a few friends, it completely changed my outlook on the site.

I'm a plurk addict :P