Don't do it for the karma.

First things first: Plurk is awesome.

I know I've joined a lot of social networks* (both out of boredom and for my sideline writing gig), but of the ones that I actually use, Plurk is the one I've recently gotten hooked on. It's got a lot going for it--it's simple, it runs on interactivity, and it loads fast (no clutter). And it's just plain fun.

But of course, it has a dark side. Plurk runs on a karma system, which basically rewards activity--posting, responding to other people's plurks, and updating your profile. As your karma points go up, you get to go up certain levels (the stage of creation, enlightenment, nirvana, et cetera), unlock exclusive emoticons, et cetera. What makes this the dark side?

The people who do it for the karma.

See, it feels kinda nice to notice your karma points go up, but I guess some people are just really... driven. LOL. For these people, the desire to increase their karma points (and level up faster than you), is tremendous. Naturally, they resort to--well I don't know what it's really called--spam-bomb? Plurk-spam? Plurk...bomb? xDDD;

Whatever. They just post way too frigging often. And you can tell they're just doing it for the points. Why is this such a bad thing? Because it's just plain lame. Well, if these people are in your friends list, they will clutter up your timeline and bump back the plurks of your other friends. Ah, and every couple of minutes, you'll get an update on what they're thinking, or doing, or thinking of doing, looking at, sitting on, smelling. Even if it's not the least bit interesting anymore. (Because really, unless you're MacGyver, there's little chance that you're doing something interesting like, thirty times throughout a day.) It makes the whole thing just a little bit less fun. Also, it's lame.

The good news is that you can choose to un-follow these friends--you don't have to take them off your friends list, you just don't get their plurks on your timeline. That'll lower their karma a little. This is actually Plurk's way of discouraging people from over-posting. But it's hard to tell if this is effective (since a lot of people still do it). Besides, un-following people comes with a slight feeling of guilt, as though you're being mean. ;~; I myself have taken some people off my timeline. Because I just felt like being mean. :(

Some folks around the net have remarked that the karma system should be improved, so that the quality of the plurks matter too, not just the frequency. (I'm pretty sure the responses to your plurks are taken into account too. I guess that helps a little.) I'm too much of a right-brainer to try to figure out how it could be improved, but I'll welcome anything that would make the site even more fun.

By the way, I don't spam, so add me? xD

*A lot. Including sites you've probably never even heard of: sosauce, virb, meevee, the sixty one.

Update.

Two things:

Point #1 - My mom's in Japan. She'll be there till January. I'm glad she finally got to go, but... I miss her already. And timing, really--would've been nice to have her around considering all the crap that's been going on lately.

Which by the way brings us to Point #2 - A lot of crap has been going on lately. None of which I plan to explain here. This blog is not for drama.

Moving on--if you're not on my Multiply, you probably don't know that I've been doing Project 365. Basically, it's a commitment to take one photo a day for 365 days--to basically document your life for a year. It's a healthy exercise in forcing yourself to do something interesting (trans: photo op worthy xD) every single day. Or at least be creative with the usual things around you.

Here's a sampling of what I have so far. As you can see I am not that good a photographer nor that interesting a person xDDD but I'm having fun with it. Hopefully I fulfill the commitment for an entire year (LOLLLLL).

You can check out my Flickr photo set here.

On other matters of net-whoring, I'm on PLURK! Add me plskthxbai. :D

Time for me to retire now and become a duck.

So. Virus=1, Liz=0. After a week of snorting, blowing my nose, and generally feeling gross, today I finally waved the white flag to the nasties that took over my body. I had to go home by around 11AM, feeling too weird to function. When I got home I... got drugged and slept around. LOL WRONG. xDDDD But yeah, the Tuseran (FORTE!) totally knocked me out and I was asleep all afternoon. (_^_).zZ I'm feeling slightly better now, and I've got all weekend to kick this thing, hopefully I'll be in top form again by Monday.

Anyway. Moving on to happier things. This week, work stuff has had me thinking a lot about the uh, golden age of Flash. You with me here? I'm talking 2004, 2005? NEWGROUNDS? ALBINOBLACKSHEEP? If you still don't get what I'm talking about... I'm guessing we weren't friends then(?). xD But I digress. Here are some of my all-time favorites. Let me know if you remember:

Fight! Kikko-man
Worcestershire sauce? Ketchup? What a suckers!
SHOW ME, SHOW YOU. Kikko-man. Kikko-man.
SHOW ME. SHOW YOU. KIkko-maaaaaaaaaaan~ All right!
[Wahahaha I found the romaji lyrics!!! 8D WIN! Here, sing along.]

Badgerphone
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring bananaphone
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring bananaphoooone
I've got this feeling, so appealing,
For us to get together and sing-- SING!

The llama song
I was once a treehouse, I lived in a cake
But I never saw the way the orange slayed the rake
I was only three years dead, but it told a tale
And now listen, little child, to the safety rail

Laid Off: A Day in the Life (by Odd Todd)
"When I finally got out of bed, I stared at my wall for a little while and drank some coff-ay and... stared at my wall. For breakfast... I had some fudge-striped cookies... aaaand Pringles. Then I went on my computer and poked around and looked at stuff, aaaand typed... stuff."

There you go. I just wanted to dig up some of the... classics before all the attention whores over at YouTube completely take over the innarnet's idea of LULZ. Special mention: Numa Numa (which, although a video, was still in Flash), and Tiny Plaid Ninjas (I don't know if this one caught on, but I remember liking that).

Anyway, that's it for now, I think I'll go lie down again. xD