I logged into my Plurk profile today and said to myself, looks like I’m going to have to let this go. In roughly a month, my “karma” has gone down from a high 92 to a measly 72. The sad thing about it, is that I really don’t care.

Plurk became popular at the workplace in 2008 primarily for planning the occasional dinner or night out. A simple “Drinks tonight?” Plurk can collect as many comments as necessary, right down to how many tables the group should be reserving. In other instances, I was able to reconnect with former colleagues, and at the same time unknowingly become updated with whatever else was happening. I’ve even used Plurk to determine who I should be working with. More presence on Plurk meant less time for actual work.

Personal experiences aside, those are not the reasons why I think Plurk will not survive the social networking wars.

1. Badge System – A quick inspection of Plurk’s badge system will reveal that a user can acquire a total of 30 badges. These range from X number of “Plurks”, right down to how long you have been a user of the service. The biggest flaw here is that there’s really no substantial incentive to acquire the badges in the first place.
2. Notification system – As of this writing, I have a total of 6 badges on my profile, NONE OF WHICH I WAS AWARE OF. The Plurk team should have done a better job in taking care of user engagement.
3. Karma System – I never reached 100 karma points on Plurk, but was there any reason to? Plurk’s karma system, which is based on “Plurks”, replies, or reply volume to any of your plurks, was never really enough incentive to keep your account going. I know a few people who have already quit using Plurk after achieving 100 karma points.
4. User History – Browsing through your Plurk profile will prove to be frustrating at best. The timeline orientation, along with the different planes format of each individual Plurk, make it a frustrating experience.

The usual argument when letting a social network go, is usually, “What does Social Network A have the Social Network B doesn’t?” Or, “Most of my friends and family are on Social Network A, so why should I give Social Network B a shot?” It’s not about which social network was first, or which social network is bigger. It’s all about which social network was able to provide the most fulfilling user experience.

Plurk was very promising, more engaging than Twitter even. Sadly, my stint with Plurk has turned into nothing more than a social network novelty.

With the attention the micro-blogging tool has been getting the past few weeks, I was actually on the brink of letting the the thing go. The novelty behind gaining a “follower” has started to lose its luster. You don’t know if the person who added you wants to know what you think, or just added you in hopes of getting a reciprocated “follow”.

Unfortunately, I cannot let go of these micro-blogging platforms under my profile on the right. Not because I’m an Internet marketer (and is therefore bound by the unwritten rules of Internet Marketing), but because these tools are too valuable from a reputation building standpoint. How will I tell everyone who isn’t subscribed to my RSS feed that I just posted another blog post? How do I tell a bunch of people with no access to a computer what I’m thinking? A mass text to those people? That my friends is old school. As much as I admire this guy right here, I’m sorry to say he just has no idea what he’s talking about.

I Twit or Plurk, or blog, so I can share what I know — also in hopes the few people who “follow” me can find value in what I have to say. I also follow others out there because I know I’m not the only one with something to share. For ordinary guys like me, it doesn’t matter how fast you can get to a million.