Plurk Etiquette – The Dos and Don’ts

On every social network there is always an etiquette – users require, or rather, expect you to act in a certain way, to do certain things, and say certain things.

If you want to be the best you can be on Plurk you need to get the Plurk Etiquette down – if you don’t, you’ll struggle a bit. So just keep reading!

The ‘Do Not’ List

* Mass private plurks are not a good idea – this doesn’t mean never send any, but keep it to a minimum… people find them frustrating because private plurks tend to be 1-to-1 or selective.

* Do not spam anybody’s plurks. Spam is frustrating and pointless.

* Don’t reply to someone’s plurk unless you have something of value to say. Your time is valuable, so don’t waste it.

* Plurking “hello” “goodbye” “brb” can often be boring and annoying plurks for your friends – a lot of people will un-friend/not friend you at all because of this.

* Do not continuously request friendship – if you’ve requested it once, and the person doesn’t add you, or adds you as a fan, then don’t friend them again. By adding someone continuously you will only annoy them more. Everyone has the right to accept and reject friendship

* Asking people to add you as a friend, in their plurks is also frustrating for the user.

* Do not plurk about karma – once, or twice, when you’ve reached a big milestone, sure. But don’t plurk about it going down, or up. Read this for karma tips. Karma isn’t that important anyway

The ‘Do’ List

* If someone plurks a question, and that plurk has had 15 responses, the answer to the question may have already been answered. So make sure you read the responses – then answer. You’ll get bonus points for this.

* Make a point of fanning someone you want to eventually be friends with and then respond to their plurks – let them get to know you – then try adding them as a friend. But give it some time – you can’t make friends in minutes. Everything takes time.

* It’s great if you respond to someone’s plurk with value – so don’t just use a smiley, make an effort to say something the receiver will enjoy reading.

* It’s really important to type properly, use proper punctuation and spelling. You’re using a social network, which is the same as email, and other ways of communicating. You’re not texting – so don’t use text slang, there is no need and people will find it frustrating. So do use proper spelling etc.

* If you want to share something with someone, send them a private plurk. That’s what we use private plurks for.

* Use your plurk profile to share interesting links, thoughts etc – your friends will love you for it.

* Add friends, accept friends who you’re really interested in – and who you want to keep up to date with. That’s the whole reason for plurk. Which is why some people reject friendship – and also why some accept friendship from random people, who they have never met, talked to etc – they accept because they’re interested.

* If you’ve just added someone as a friend, go out of your way to get to know them – that is, if you don’t already!

What is Spam?

An irrelevant or inappropriate message sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients, or replying to someone multiple times with the same responses. Otherwise known as senseless, pointless, annoying messages.

See examples of spam below.

lfglkjlhflhgflhlgflglf blahblahblah floooood

The above is spam at its best – pure spam, useless information, also known as “flooding”.

Add me as a friend!!!! hehehehe

The above is not so much spam, but users often post it multiple times in several places – resulting in spam.

Other forms of spam are swearing and rude responses in a plurk, along with meaningless responses like “hello” when it’s irelevant.