June 2008

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I've spent some time this week on both Twitter and Plurk. Originally I wasn't planning to join Plurk, but several of my friends did and were saying nice things about it, so I figured I'd join the flock.

I like Twitter's interface better than Plurk's, and find it much easier to use. For one thing, Plurk makes you scroll sideways, and I really don't like having to do that. Timelines are interesting when they can hang on a wall or when there is nothing but a small link to click to expand the thing. When you have to scroll sideways to read even a short message, eh, I think you could have a better design.

But one thing I like a lot about Plurk is the way it handles replies to a message. They're all grouped with that message, much as we are used to on threaded message boards. That there are replies to be read is shown by a small note and by numbers off to the side of a message's line. Twitter replies show up in your message list, and have been known to get lost in the shuffle.

I don't care for Plurk's use of what they call Karma points (the more you play by Plurk's rules, the more points you get), but it's sort of hidden at the bottom of the page and is fairly easy to ignore. And I don't like their use of suggested verbs (is, says, thinks, shares, etc.) for starting posts. But they do allow you to lose that, which is pleasing.

I understand that Plurk has a feature for only showing messages to a specific group, and that can be done on a message-by-message basis. I haven't tried it, but I see the potential for it to be very useful. Twitter, on the negative side, only allows for locked or unlocked sites, and it's an all-or-none proposition. The only way you can filter part of your regular followers out of a message is to use a more cumbersome private message feature to send the message.

I probably won't use Plurk as much as Twitter, but in the relatively few days I've been there, I've made Plurk-friends with several people whose messages are either lots of fun or very useful (one reviews developments in software and social media). I will definitely check in during a day to see what my friends have had to say, even if I'm not in much of a mood to post.

But all in all, I like Twitter better. I know it's easier to love the older, more established, familiar thing, but honestly, it's the way messages are displayed that seals the love for me.

By the way, I'm BeckySays at both places, and I welcome friends.