Busy day or so in the plurkiverse for those of you that tune in daily. Looks like private plurks tab is back so the cliques can begin again and the interesting plurkers page has a Popular tab and most recent.

I decided to see how far I had fallen down the most viewed on interesting plurkers when to my surprise I saw a new tab! Turns out there is a popular tab now which well dictates the ~50 most popular plurkers. What I want to know what is what defines popular?

It can’t just be most followed as that’s already covered; I’m thinking it’s some sort of hybrid. I definitely would of thought the number of followers you have plays somewhat into the equation; it doesn’t seem to though. Maybe they have found a way to ratio the average number of replies per plurk? I’d really like to hear everyone’s thoughts on what the “popular” algorithm consists of.

The most recent tab at the bottom far right next to most responded may or may not of been there before. I am NOT known for paying attention to detail; my head is usually far in the clouds but I did just notice it. Not much a use except if your bored and or new and want to join a conversation quickly you can be sure that the people listed on most recent are probably still online. This could also be a great way to make new friends…

In lesser news but of greater importance to many I’m sure the private plurks tab is back. Sure sure you could check it on the mobile page but who remembers to do that? Heck many people forget to check even when it’s got it’s own proper tab on the line. What next plurk? How about making the private tab turn a color when you have a new private? Or what about a new color when there is a new private addressed ONLY to you? We all get many that are sent to everyone and if you don’t reply it’s no big deal; if someone sends one to you and only you it’s almost seen as rude not to reply or acknowledge. That is of course unless the person is a cyber stalker / can’t take a hint kinda guy and in that case ignoring is totally fine if not recommended!

That’s it for now; if you have any ideas on how the popular page is compiled please let us know in comments.

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

- Rob

EDIT: I checked back on the popular page and everything had changed. Looks like it’s geo-targeted now. I only saw Canadians on the the list. I’m curious if it was like that all along or just recently changed. Would be cool if you could browse by country and one for international. Actually that would be cool for all current ratings. Something else of interest is it looks like there is room to add more features under this current layout for interesting plurkers and plurks.

Since it’s only plurkers reading this; here is the plurk as it obviously generates more conversation.

Looks like Alvin has been drinking his Innis & Gunn and brought about a new little tweak to the user interface (UI). The tweak is a new search box in the bottom right of the timeline. Some of you “old schoolerz” may remember the little magnified glass that was there previously. Now it’s jut a box that says “I love plurk” with a more straight forward “Search” written afterwards.

I’m glad to see this function back it’s always great to search your name and see what people are saying about you. It’s also helpful to search an interest of yours to find other plurkers who are also into it.

In case you don’t know who Alvin is he’s the genius behind plurk’s intuitive UI. If you really want to get to know the guy beyond the fact that he eats puppies I recommend you read his blog Daily Misery. Also while you’re there you may wish to also view Alvin’s position on why the interface scrolls the way it does. You can read it here and it’s called The Case of Left to Right

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

- Rob

I was doing my usual plurk lurkin this morning and I noticed that my site ranked for “Plurk Administrator” so I plurked about it obviously then went into stats and noticed people using a few other plurk terms that my forum was ranking for.

Long story short in the search results I became aware of two lesser known Plurk fan sites worth visiting.They are both run by knorcedger and they are called Plurk Mania and onPlurk

Plurk Mania is very similar to the more well known Plurkerati. I’m not sure which one I like more; I definitely like how Plurk Mania organizes the information. Definitely worth checking out.

onPlurk is pretty cool as well it’s a place to bookmark your favorite plurks and discover new interesting plurks. I believe it’s using the PLIGG system which is what most Digg clones are using. This could be an interesting way to see what’s hot in the Plurkosphere if it really picks up. I’m not much for submitting to social media sites but I’m definitely one to read them.

The weird thing is having been on plurk almost 3 months I think this may be the first time I ever really visited these sites. This got me thinking I wonder how many others are out there?

If you know of some other incredibly plurky sites please post them in the comments here.

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

- Rob

Just like the title says… Where haz Private Plurks gone?? I was online about a week ago when Nethead broke the news that new windows were appearing without the private plurk function. I had noticed something similar at the same time and when I refreshed really knew what he meant; I had no more private plurks button.

That being said it’s been a while now that they have been gone. Let’s get serious; social media is cool but the one of the points in friending someone is so you can talk to them privately. You don’t need to follow, fan, friend anyone to simply throw your $0.02 in their plurks. I think part of the reason social media is so popular is because with a simple friend request your not really friends but you are a distant acquaintance and if need be can send them a private note. Also somewhat related I think lot’s of hilarious plurks people don’t want to share with the world get sent through private plurks and if you have a few friends your bound to find some interesting ones.

I’ve been away from plurk for a while; actually just away from the computer. Doing things in my life, taking vacation and just enjoying an active summer lifestyle before the snow falls and we’re all trapped inside again. Last night I noticed that the private plurks were still not there so I decided to plurk about the fate of private plurks. Sure enough like anything in life there is always plan B.

Turns out they disabled it to ease the load on the servers. YES!! That’s a good sign that plurk is growing and let’s get serious this is summer in North America; it’s usually a slow time as everyone is out doing what I described I was doing in the last paragraph. If you want to check your private plurks simply go to the plurk mobile page and you can check them there. Thanks KDFrawg for explaining this to me.

Let’s hope they get private plurks back up in the near future and continue to grow. Sure I’m assuming they are growing but why not? It’s a sick user interface and should only be a matter of time until everyone uses it.

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

- Rob

P.S Turns out I missed the plurkCAST, video PlurkCAST etc etc… If you want to know what happened last week check out Plurkiverse for now.

Just checked the interesting plurkers to see what was up and wow; it just got really interesting!

I haven’t been there in a while so I’m not even really sure what it was like previously but I remember something about people from your country showing up. Either way just checked it out and it now has additional categories beside just the top plurkers by karma. It has ~50 most viewed profiles, ~50 most followed members, new members and of course random members.

I think the new setup is pretty cool and a great way to meet new people and well meet more “interesting plurkers”.

Nice work plurk.

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

- Rob

P.S Also note how you can also change your language now at the bottom left.

EDIT: Looks like I made this post just a bit early. Just today when I checked it it has a NEW symbol next to Interesting Plurkers and well it’s changed even more. Cool how it has most recent plurks and most responded. The most responded never loaded for me but I’m curious to see what plurks they are. Is it most replied to ever? this week? this month?…

Looks like PLURK A-Team is up to it again; more badges yay! The new badges are the ones for Plurk Nirvana and for over 50 fans.

I like the Plurk Nirvana one but don’t like the Fans one. I hope one day the Plurk A-Team will come on the PlurkCAST and fill us all in on their vision.

Are we supposed to make friends or fans? I don’t get it. You get penalized if you add a friend and they fan you. Now you get a badge for rejecting people and making them fans? If there was no karma loss and no benefits of fans more people would become friends, which I feel is the number one reason for these types of sites to exist. You make friends, you form collaborations you grow.

I’m curious to see what the next badges are; if they are trying to curb spam I sincerely hope it’s not for “Number of plurks” or “Number of responses”.

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

-Rob

P.S They also added color to some of the Plurk Buddies which looks pretty cool. If you check my profile you’ll see I’m rocking the snot green… (No clue its name).

We all know I love plurk; obviously or I wouldn’t dedicate my time to writing on the subject when I”m not using the network. Recently the compete score came through and it appears that the numbers of Plurk users has in fact gone down since the last evaluation.

First let’s visit Compete.com

Date: 07/2008 People Month ? Year ? What is this?
plurk.com 267,026 -18.8% N/A

Compete shows that Plurk stats are down 18.8%

Second let’s visit Alexa.com

Feel free to click on the Alexa graph for further details. According to Alexa they are up over 3 months. I’m curious how it is over the last month. I think both metrics are horrible but the best we have to gauge without actually looking at the actual statistics. Another reason why the Alexa is probably less affected is because most people using plurk probably use the Alexa tool bar. I know the tool bar has less weight then before but I still believe it has some. Webmaster / Early Adopter / Geeky stuff always ranks higher its’ where the geeks w/ the tool bars hang!

First I think it makes sense for it to be tapering down a bit. It had it’s initial “introduction” and many people checked it out; opened an account used it. Some continue to use it while others most likely moved on. I know I do that with most social media networks I join. I just like plurk a lot more so I stick around. Obviously Plurk has a GREAT ACTIVE community but my question is how many NEW plurkers are coming in and really joining the party?

I do think that Needy Karma is the biggest detractor to casual / new users using the system. I also think that Plurk may be asking too much of its community; sometimes I feel like I’m being used. Do you know any other sites that demand you use the site 4X a day plus to stay in “Good standings”?

Another reason I think plurk could be losing some traction is because of the new front page.

When I saw that for the first time besides the word “EMO” I loved it. I was intrigued it was something NEW. Now they have made the front page look so generic like they unzipped some script and made their own “Social Media Network”. It just doesn’t look original it looks generic which is too bad considering Plurk is anything but generic. Ok ok this probably isn’t a valid reason but I just thought I’d throw it out there as I really dislike the new front page.

I think Plurk is going to be alright and continue to grow but I just thought I’d mention this as it’s something I noticed and thought I’d share.

What can we as the community do to help? Well if you have a blog; blog about it. Just write anything about why you like it or mention a plurk you liked or anything. Your readers will probably check it out if they trust what you say. Also don’t spend too much time on plurk; haha. I know it sounds weird saying that but check your sites are you losing ground while gaining karma? I did for a while heck I wasn’t even posting in my blog forum anymore. The reason I’m pointing this out is if you only spend your time on Plurk how will it grow? Everyone needs to let others know. It would be a shame if this never hit real critical mass.

Stay tuned for more things plurk,

- Rob

P.S I think the Invite code is totally spammy. Imagine telling someone hey you will like this site and then sending them an affiliate link?… That’s what the current system is doing.