Plurkfiends

One of the many things I like about Plurk is its user interface – it’s a rather grand , interactive, left-right scrolling timeline that allows user to easily see their own Plurks as well as those of their friends, including an easy way to identify Plurks that have been responded to.  I’ve been using Plurk for nigh on eighteen months, having been introduced to it by my online friends that I’ve been in contact with for well over five years.

I’ve tried Twitter -and I still use that for brief contact and posting of links as well as keeping up with various services/organisations that post brief information, often including links – but it’s Plurk that is my preferrred social-networking microblog service.  Plurk is easy to use, easy to understand and easy to communicate with.  Having used Twitter and having had a go at a mutltitude of microblogging services, Plurk stands out way above the crowd.  In short, Plurk rocks.

Like many grand things that rock, it has – unfortunately – been ripped off.  Not just by any company – but by Microsoft China.  A big corporation ripping off a young startup that is doing amazing work.  Surely Microsoft has the resources to do their own work?  One would think so – but one would be wrong.

If you’d like more information on this dastardly deed, please see the post on the Plurk blog entitled Microsoft China rips off Asia’s No. 1 Microblogging Service as well as the followup Plurk’s official response to Microsoft’s apology.

I would like to think – and hope – that this will all be resolved in Plurk‘s favour – time will tell.

Don’t let your neighbour set your standards. Be yourself.

When I was about sixteen years old, my parents gave my stepbrother a great book: How to Win Friends and Influence People. I am fairly sure he read it. And I know everyone else did too. I managed to get my hands on the book for a week, reading it cover to cover. But that was … sheesh, twenty one years ago. I am going to purchase it for myself.

This book not only taught me about interpersonal communication, effective negotiation, and how to win/lose an argument without getting beaten to a pulp. Twenty years on, and I sometimes wonder if I actually read the book. I remember it – but I sometimes have days where I take life a little too seriously, take on way too much for one person, and forget that I am not immortal.

As an Australian, the worst crime we have is believing we are so far away from the rest of the world that those atrocities could never happen over here. You never know when that bus is going to hit.

I’ve been thinking about this post for all of this month – one year since I entered this place called Plurk.  It’s been an interesting year, catching up with old friends met via other networks and meeting new people many of whom I’m now happy to call plurkfiends and forging new relationships based on learning about and exploring photography.

I first became aware of Plurk via people I’ve known online since 2004 via game called Blog$hares.  There’s a graph in this somewhere charting my increased time in Plurk and my decreased time playing with shares based on blog linkage, but I’ll leave that to @billythekid to blog about and your imagination otherwise.

I was on the Gold Coast last year and caught up with @gcgal and @aussiejohn for my first ever Plurkfest and since then I’ve had a visit from @soulcreates here in Darwin.  These interactions as well as time spent plurking (and via Plurk, flickring) had me thinking that I’d like to have a larger gathering of those I Plurk with and so suggested a gathering.  Plurkfest Oz 2009 will now be happening in November in Adelaide.

Many of my plurkfiends are photographers and/or have a keen interest in photography and I’ve learned much from them over the past year as they also share this mad passion.  Some of the grand photographers that I’ve met whilst Plurking that you might want to check out are murfomurf, eztephen, soulcreates, werewegian and claudecf.

Not a lot of content for having thought about it for most of the past month, is it?  But that is it – I want to get back to Plurking and flickring – much to amuse myself with.  Thanks for dropping by.

You’d probably like to know that this is the (23*3)th post.

Are phone calls on public transport subject to the same rules as online chatting on Plurk, Twitter, Facebook and any online social networking tool?

Can anyone jump in, particularly if they have a (in)valid response or argument that might add substance to the discussion?

Or are we really only sociable online because it’s the only location where the thoughts of others are appreciated?

Ironically, your answers & thoughts appreciated.