I like Plurk. It’s fun to put out a message and then have all subsequent threads neatly organized underneath. It definitely needs an API and a way to track @replies, but it is a neat tool. I was excited when it first came out.

Why then the harsh title, you ask? Plurk rewards us for Plurking and punishes us for not Plurking by using a “karma” system. Go to an important meeting for a day, have a fun day with your family, save a homeless shelter from being torn down. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t Plurk, Plurk lets you know that they are not happy with your Plurking activity and take away Karma points.

People should not feel obliged or punished for not wanting to use a social network. That’s just silly. It’s like the mother who always whines at you for not calling. Come on now, sometimes we get busy, and it’s hard to call you as much as you want us to because you are retired and we are not.

What is the result of this plurking karma nightmare? Karma obsessed goobers with nothing better to do than Plurk any dumb idea that comes to their head. Uh, sorry you don’t have a lot of followers on Twitter and have resorted to something else. I still do not care what you have to say.

I do give props to Darren Rowse from Problogger. He uses it, but doesn’t abuse it. There are others like Connie Reese and Omar Gallaga who pop in once in a while, but their Plurks are vastly outnumbered by plurking nightmare people. What’s kind of nice is you can stop following your “friends’” plurks without actually taking them off and thus risking the incitement of a Plurk war. God forbid.

That is not a community. That is a competition without money or really any benefit whatsoever. What a Plurking nightmare.