Plurk - Why Can’t We Just Be Friends?

Posted in Plurky Stuff | June 16th, 2008

If someone requests friendship from you on plurk; why can’t you just accept or reject them as a friend? Why is it that they are considered a fan of yours and possibly forever listed on your page? They never clicked the fan button.

The logic behind the current process is adding a contact makes you a fan of them by default. Isn’t a fan an enthusiastic devotee, admirer or follower? Why are people being associated with this when clicking “Add Friend”? Quite a gap between the two exists; friends look eye to eye while fans look up while…

Take your favorite musicians as an example. If they met you what would they think? Does it matter? Who cares; you’re a fan because you like what they do and that’s why you follow or admire them. In this case that is done by implicitly clicking on the “Follow This Person” button.

Is Plurk’s current system creating a “fans” list? Or a list of people you “don’t care to get to know” or worse; “people who I’m sure will just send me spammy junk”? Why would I ever fan someone when the “base” is comprised of apparently undesirables? The latest algorithm even subtracts karma from you for being rejected as a friend; while awarding karma for new fans... Is this mechanism encouraging or discouraging networking? Where’s the PLURK!? (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect ,Karma)

What is a possible alternative?

If you deny a request that’s it; you’re not friends. If that denied user becomes a fan you get an alert; choose yes or no. If you deny it; they can no longer friend/fan you again. Same rules apply if a follow request is initiated first. No assumptions are made about requesters affinity for the person being added.

To add to this idea when you deny someone as a friend instead of your profile showing “Add as Friend” show “Friend Request Denied”. This “request denied” can also be used on the follow button. At any time you choose to befriend the user simply add them. They accept or deny. The less ambiguity that exists in the relationship; the better.

Plurk is new and I’m sure some things will change and some won’t. I think this is an area that could use some attention. Why do I care? I care because Plurk is better then any other network I’ve tried at actually letting you meet people; not just usernames.

I did ask this question on plurk and as expected got a mixed bag of replies.

http://www.plurk.com/p/dm56

So what’s your take on this?

Written by: Bloggeries

11 Responses to “Plurk - Why Can’t We Just Be Friends?”

Pierre-Philippe Martin on June 16th, 2008 | 8:03 pm

Good observation. I hope the PlurkBuddy is listening carefully.

Pierre-Philippe Martin’s last blog post..Knitted fishes invade Cityplaza
Vaughn Sanders on June 16th, 2008 | 8:52 pm

My approach to Plurk’s friend/fan is a little different. If I know someone I will request to be friended on Plurk. However, if I don’t know the person but have seen their comments in other threads, I may request to be their fan. Some people have various requirements when adding friends while others don’t.

If I am a fan, I can respond to comments that they have made and begin to get to know them better. Once we get more acquainted it is up to them if they want to friend me later or not. I think this is Plurk courtesy.

It will help to have less ambiguity as the service evolves though.
Ann Handley on June 16th, 2008 | 9:09 pm

Frankly, I kind of like ambiguity. My ego is far too fragile to handle being “rejected as friend.” (!)

; )
Howard Yermish on June 16th, 2008 | 10:23 pm

Yes, I agree that the friend/fan thing is a bit confusing. I think that if the goal was to make a distinction between people that you know and people that you have interacted with on a social network site, friend status would be very hard to come by. And people like to feel that they have lots of friends.

I wish that it worked this way: If I follow you I’m a fan, if you follow me back, we then become friends. That just makes everything much simpler. And they have “cliques” as well to add to the confusion. I think that they over engineered the solution.

Howard Yermish’s last blog post..Build Your Network in Advance
daysies on June 17th, 2008 | 9:25 am

it’s too early for me to be digesting this friend/fan thing, but i will say i like what you came up with for Plurk: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, Karma. that’s great!
daysies’s last blog post..don’t forget your happy slip
54degrees @Plurk on June 17th, 2008 | 9:33 am

Since clieques aren’t working yet, the whole friends/fan solution is more then irritating.

Everyone just wants a big friends-counter (karma go go!) and being a Fan is worth nothing. I hope the system gets some updates to this part soon.
Bloggeries on June 19th, 2008 | 3:22 pm

We’ll see what the future holds however I doubt they’ll change it sadly.
mp3 dinle on April 19th, 2009 | 1:16 pm

Frankly, I kind of like ambiguity. My ego is far too fragile to handle being “rejected as friend.” (!)

mp3 dinle’s last blog post..Emirkan - Alo A?k?m
hoodia on December 3rd, 2009 | 7:56 am

@Isabella, you look like you know what you are talking about. Do you mind shooting me your email? I would like to speak more with you.

hoodia’s last blog post..Pure Hoodia Weight Loss - Look Slim and Youthful
james on February 1st, 2010 | 8:26 am

merci bien thx
Chasey on February 20th, 2010 | 11:57 pm

Plurk has been an experiment of sorts for me, friending people who I don’t really know. But even there, I tend to leave people as ‘fans’ until I get to know them a little better.