Plurkaholics!

I spent this past week doing a “Plurkathon”, which means I spend as much time Plurking as reasonably feasible. Since I run a business and take care of an infant, my plurkathon to someone else may seem to be a plurking stroll and nowhere near its neologism.

Here’s what I started out with on July 6:
Karma 60.51
# of Plurks 307
# of Plurk Responses 934
Profile Views 835

Here’s what I have as of today July 11:
Karma 62.10
# of Plurks 349
# of Plurk Responses 1558
Profile Views 1056

I ran a Plurkathon and all I got was this lousy 1.59 increase in Karma!

But seriously… I didn’t do a Plurkathon to raise Karma points. I was experimenting with different ways to engage on Plurk. Some observations:

First I began by throwing out a bunch of questions, and some were picked up and others got 0 response. This led me to try a different approach:

I began to focus more on responding to topics I was interested in. I also began muting many plurks that I knew I wasn’t going to follow or that was really a “lifestream” (i.e. “I am going grocery shopping! I’m picking out the produce! I’m running my credit card through the machine right now!”………… Ok enough with that already, we get it, you are really plugged in online and can use one handed typing while doing everything else with the other…)

I used Private Plurking to engage in more in-depth discussions with specific groups of people instead of opening the topic to public, and…

I ALMOST participated in the tail end of a Plurkshop if I didn’t have a baby diaper emergency that required a bottle of carpet cleaner and about 100 baby wipes or paper towels.

I came away with firm belief that Plurk is a useful platform that at best, generates new ideas (I came away with 18 potential article topics for the day when my baby goes to college and I finally have time to write articles again) and at worst, is a highly addictive online water cooler.

I can’t wait for the next time when I do another Plurkathon!

An idea that came up during conversation on Plurk today and I sent this email off to the Plurk team.

Dear Plurk team,

A conversation came up where I asked for help and within minutes received a couple of answers and the best of intentions.

I then mentioned that if I could give away my Karma points, I would!

This idea seems to be resonating among others.

I know Karma collecting has become a semi-sport here on Plurk. What say we inject a bit of altruism into this and allow Plurkers to give away their Karma points?

This may even encourage more Plurking – for those who love to give.

Best wishes,
Jane Chin

Plurk tries to be helpful by giving tips on raising Karma.

Most of the time the tips are actually helpful, i.e. useful instructions of what to do or what not to do, for example:

• “Losing followers will lower your karma”
• “Responses from other Plurkers will gain your karma”
• “Your karma will drop if you don’t update your timeline each day”
• “Inviting people to Plurk will gain you more karma”
• “Updating your profile (location, birthday, etc.) will gain you more karma”
• “Uploading a profile picture will increase your karma”
• “Karma gets lowered if you request friendship and get rejected”
• “Plurking interesting stuff and increasing followers will gain you more karma”

The best one I’ve found is something like, “plurk everyday but no more than 30 plurks a day” because it tells you that magic number when your efforts are proportionally rewarded with karma points. Plurking too much may actually lower, or at least will not increase, your karma!

I guess Plurk wants you to actually get a life and not just a life on Plurk, but a real life, so you have more interesting stuff to Plurk about.

Occasionally Plurk will have a lame karma tip like the one below:

No definition on what “fun” means and how to have more of it. I don’t think that dancing banana has anything to do with it, although I do love that little animated fruit Livin’ La Vida Loca.