Plurk - Faq, Karma for your plurks?

As requested, this is the Plurk FAQ Guide, for all those who are new to Plurk, have questions about it, or are wondering what the heck is this thing and why are they forcing me into this. :lol:

WTF is Plurk?!
According to the site itself, its...

But if you're asking me for my own POV, it's like a journal/blogging site, but you don't have to write long stuff to let people know what you're doing. These entries, lovingly called 'plurks', are shown in your webpage, and tell people what you're thinking/doing/insert another verb here.

Interesting. How do I sign up?
Well, you can go here(it's not my referral, okay? :lol:). I'm assuming that you'd know what you're going to put in the text boxes.

The nickname, though, will be kind of a link to your Plurk Page, so choose wisely. It'll be also your screen name, which can be seen when you make Plurks or reply to them. Mine is: http://www.plurk.com/user/reinamirasaki so go ahead and add me :D

What does a plurk look like?
This is what a plurk is:
(Posted Image)
There's my display name, my plurk in Filipino, and how many replies I've gotten.

Wow, this looks like Friendster, just with blogging.
Well, IMO, no. In those other networking sites, you're just adding friends, people you don't know, and your stalkers-to-be in the future. In Plurk, it's pretty different; it's actually RECOMMENDED to add your real friends. Except for Plurk Buddy, I'd have to say that you don't want to encounter an embarrassing situation with someone you don't know.

As for Plurk Buddy, he is always anyone's first friend. He serves as the announcement boards for the Plurk team, so if there are any updates, he'll tell you.

Ookay. So how do make Plurks viewable for my friends, or certain people?
First, you have to go to your Plurking Text Box: [image]
And then, go to Private Plurks, Languages and Options link. Click on it and it will expand, showing the settings to you, including the language of the quantifier. [image]
Whoa, so I have a timeline of my Plurks?
Yes! You see, whenever you post, it follows the time it was sent. It keeps you in track of what time he did what, or what time she said this, or what time was that meeting supposed to be. You can browse it as far back as...well, I'm not really sure. You can try how far, though.

This is your timeline: [image]

How long are Plurks?
Excluding your name and the quantifier, it can only be up to 140 characters. So unless Plurk decides to do something about it, conserve space. :lol:

What'a a quantifier?
I think it's Plurk's fancy way of saying verbs; those colored things that have verbs in them like feels, hates, is, etc. Of course, you can make your own by clicking freestyle.

Here is a picture of quantifiers in action: [image]

There are also quantifiers in Filipino; it's kinda awkward, and it forces the person to use the same quantifiers in that language. Take heed of this or else you might get an S&D out of nowhere. I know I did. O_O

How do I enter links?
There are two ways; the easy way and the I'm-a-tech-savvy-person-so-I-know-the-long-hard-way. The easy way is just to pick the :share: quantifier, then choose either if it's a Link, a Photo or a Video, and a little screen pops up to help you customize.

The I'm-a-tech-savvy-person-so-I-know-the-long-hard-way is just to type in the URL(text). So it's not really the long hard way, but hey, some people find it hard :lol:

WHAT? MY PLURK IS VIEWABLE TO THE WHOLE WORLD?!
Well...yeah. I was going to tell you about that. The default setting is plurking for the whole world to see, but you can adjust the settings for your plurks to be seen by your friends only, and for some specific people. That's why I taught you about the Plurking options first. :lol:

Okay, I'm fed up with Plurk.
You can just delete your account, if you don't want to continue using it (which is a sad thing. :( ) You can go to My Account at the upper left corner of the screen and see a big red button saying, "Delete My Account".

Up Next: Profile Customization~!

This post has been edited by ReiMirasaki on Nov 14 2008, 07:15 AM

Profile Customization

As you might have noticed, my profile doesn't look like yours. So what's up with that?!

In this post I'm going to show you how to customize your profile; just the basics. I'm guessing some here know CSS, so I won't expound on that. :D

I'm clicking the "My Profile" link on top. Why isn't anything happening?
Happens to me all the time, too. The options for editing your profile is beside it; yes, the 'edit' word. When you click it, a small window appears, and all the settings will be there.

First tab is: General. So they're basic information about you; your full name, your display name (which will only be editable after 40 karma), and other info about you. You can also make your location visible or not to other Plurkers.

Picture is the second tab; it's your little avvy. You can only upload one picture, and they're not accepting GIFs as of the moment. I don't know about posting stuff what shouldn't be posted, but have some dignity and post nice pictures, okay? :lol:

Customize profile is where the fun stuff comes in. You can change your profile page title here (I know you can edit it after 20 karma). customize the look of your page (either choose whatever themes you like or enter your CSS code at the big box at the bottom), and pick your creature. I haven't explored much on the creatures yet, but if anyone has experience on this, feel free to share.

Widgets are fun. You can display these on your other sites and sorta, attract people to join you at plurk. There are two types: HTML and Flash.

That concludes my little lesson on Customizing Profiles. I'd be adding some screenies later. :D

Up Next: Friends, Fans and...Karma?!

Friends, Fans and...Karma?!

Friends are well...do I really need to define this? They're the people you know. Like any other social networking site, you can add friends and see what they're plurking about.

Fans are not your friends but they just follow your plurks. You don't know them, but they know you, which is scary. :lol:

Karma is what makes Plurk fun and different. You start off with no karma, and as you plurk through, it increases, and you get more emoticons and features available to you.

Now you see why I told you to add your real friends. :lol:

Alphonse Elric from FMA once said, "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost." Therefore, if you want to gain karma, you have to do the above. Sounds hectic? Nah. You won't notice it as you enjoy Plurking.

But too much of anything can make you lose karma, too.

There are rewards for getting more karma: [image]

Up Next: Random Questions That Pop Out Of Nowhere

Random Questions That Pop Out Of Nowhere

Now I know you might have questions that I haven't covered, so please feel free to post your question, and feel free to answer those questions too, because I haven't mastered the whole Plurking thing yet.

I hope you enjoyed the little guide I made, because it was fun for me too; I needed to get off NaNoWriMo for a while. I hope you learned something, too. :D I know you guys can discover the advanced stuff on your own. But there's no harm in asking questions too, right?

Thanks for reading! :arigatou:

Signing off for the moment ,
ReiMirasaki
ECO Angels
Currently in Ether, Farming for Dollahs...este...Dalants

Fellow plurkers!!! Lend me your... monitors... :lol:

Please post your Plurk page addy here so we can add everyone up!

This is me===> http://www.plurk.com/rndbau

:D

LOL XD

http://www.plurk.com/user/thyalla
http://www.plurk.com/user/ryunaito

Update: Pets

*facepalm* Either I'm blind or just plain ignorant, I just figured out what pets are for; well, maybe where you can see them.

They're at the right side, where the Plurk name stands out. It's just a picture of the pet you picked.

I still have no idea as to what purpose they serve, but I haven't gotten to 60 karma yet, so...I'll be updating; the Plurk team might have something in mind with those pets. :D

Pet ko squid with a square head... wonder if Plurk is tryin to tell me sumthin...

Article:
http://plurklayouts.com/the-obvious-secrets-to-plurk-karma/

Remember this person from the Rant Thread? [link]

Wala lang. XD

Text Shortcuts for Plurk:

@<plurkusername> - link to a person's plurk page
*text* - italicize text
_text_ - underscore text
**text** - bold text
url (text) - how to make a link

!FB - cancel crossposting of the plurk entry to facebook

Keyboard Shortcuts:
V = View new responses and also View all messages - Toggles
M = Mark all as read
% = Move forward in Timeline (works best if you have moved back in the timeline and would like to move forward a little at a time, a little buggy, must click in timeline between each use.)
& = Move backward in Timeline (only moves a small amount)

It was said that Plurk is another kind of microblogging tool, similar to Twitter.

well it's on the web and it's a log, timeline nga naman.. so technically (we)blog siya and the char lmit does make it 'micro' :D