Cuter than the Twitter whale?

Plurk.

Plurk is a made up word and a fantasy creature. Plurk is more; it’s the latest chat and conversation tool on the market, and plurky just about describes it.

Plurk takes a whole new spin on on chat though as you can see. Chat isn’t just streaming up the window as with Twitter, Pownce or IM. The flow is left to right. Like little boats of conversation floating down the river, the watchful eye of the plurk beast overseeing it.

Already you can imagine it takes a bit of getting used to, but now check out the chat popup.

Each conversation box opens up, and a complete thread can take place there. The whole of that conversation is contained inside that box. The neatest thing is it’s a live update box. As folks comment back in it, it updates while you watch.

This feature is especially interesting when the plurk message is a private one or to a clique. Then it’s not even visible except to those invited into it. The box becomes your own private chat room.

Karma! Just one of the interesting features of plurk is Karma. You, me, the guy with the rat fetish, we all earn karma. Let me just say, the karma wars are on.

Karma is earned through some obvious activities. Adding friends, inviting people, and posting messages all seem to have a positive affect on your karma. You can’t always tell though, as karma points are only updated about twice each day. The notes are fuzzy on when updates occur.

So what’s the point of karma? Well unlike regular social networks, such as Twitter, or Facebook, plurk doesn’t open all of its features to new members. As your karma increases, more features, really customizations, become available.

Customizations include changing your backgrounds, cool chat icons, including dancing bananas, picking out your version of the plurk creature, and naming your plurk page. Those are most of the things that get unlocked, and it seems obvious there are more to be found.

The whole unlocking thing, coupled with the ever moving stream of messages, give plurk a game like feel. At first this is fun and appealing to almost everyone it seems. The problem is that karma updates so slowly that for most folks, they are unable to unlock anything until their second day on plurk, and even then just one or two items.

The other downside to making it so game like is that the aggressive gaming of the system is already occurring. You’ll see folks with several hundred friends and thousands of messages sent. You’ll see threads of conversation going into the hundreds of follow on comments. People are hunting down karma like it was the next big thing. Remind you of WoW?

So the game like feel may not be for everyone, but overall plurk is an interesting take on conversation online. I find it is a lot more interactive than Twitter or Pownce, and with the built in chat features, more fun to actually use.

I’ll be putting a follow up post together just about the chat text and link features. Feel free to share your best and favorite ones here, as well as your take on using plurk. Please, jump in and share, and post your plurk me link.

Plurk me?

Austin made me feel welcome in more ways than one.  Heck, they even named a store after my son, Randall’s.  Throughout the week folks were courteous and welcoming.

That and they kept apologizing for the weather.  Yes, when it’s below 70 something or the least bit clowdy, they think the weather is bad.  Heck, it was flooding in our neck of the woods when we left and cold too boot.

Austin brought Nanna J and I opportunities for dining experiences, cultural discoveries, and making new friends.  Simis, a photographer friend,  hosted us for the entire week. My favorite shot of her.

During our visit were were able to not just meet with Simis, but with several other contacts of mine from Twitter. We had lunch out with @Orchid8.

We had breakfast with @mikeneumann:

Dinner with Simis:

And then a whole dang tweetup hosted by Kim Haynes.

Several folks turned out for the meetup and made us feel quite welcome. We didn’t just talk about Twitter either. No, we talked about blogging, social media, photography, and social networking. But beyond that, we had opportunity to talk about each other, Austin, and food. You know that last one is dear to my heart. Ha.

As you can see, just meeting folks was a busy week. I’ll have to do another post about the cultural stuff I guess. Expect a post just about the food as well.

For a visual recap of our week in Austin be sure to check out Flickr. I’ll be adding more pics to that set over the next several days.

In summary, the trip to Austin brought me closer to folks in my network than just being virtual friends.  We talked, we laughed, and we broke bread together.  Those are the makings of a lasting friendship.  Heck, in all the excitement, I made some new friends too and so did our friend Simis.

What are you doing with your next vacation? Seeing the Grand Canyon, or closing the loop with friends? Can you manage both like in our Austin trip?

Have you ever watched someone making video while they drove their truck? Filmed from inside the truck?  That’s Jeff Hibbard and his idea of social media gone crazy.

What about the live parties with chat and video from all over and guests? That’s what Jonny Goldstein brings us every Wednesday evening.  Now that’s a party and half to be part of.

These two guys bring the fun and social back into social media.  What makes these two interesting the most?  The conversational tone and viewer involvement.

Jeff doesn’t just sit there and make faces or act goofy. Okay, he does some of that.  Jeff does more though, by talking to us, about us, and he gives you the feeling of being there.  Especially when he’s talking with us while filming out the front window of the truck.  Cheers to Jeff.

Jonny? He’s all about the real time conversation.  Not content to just act silly by himself like most of the YouTube folks out there, Jonny invites guests each week to join him at his place for a live party.  And guess who else is invited? That’s right; you and I are invited along.

Jonny puts him and his guest(s) online live, and even brings in the occasional guest on another camera.  Jeff Hibbard joined one time live from the truck!  Now that’s what social media is all about.

Though I’ve highlighted Jeff and Jonny, they are far from the only two out there that are engaging us with their efforts.  One of my other favorites for putting the social into social networks and media is Jeff Pulver, who recently brought us his Personal Social Networking Toolkit.

So what interesting and fun things have your social networks brought you? Who engages you? Share with me?