It occurs to me that Karma is going to continue to be a big deal, whether you and I are big Karma fans are not. Society is currently structured in such a way that we have to have a way to keep score in everything we do. For Plurkers, Karma is pretty much all the score we get, so it’s going to be hard to ignore. And, although I don’t think the rules are totally fair, the Plurk A-Team is trying.

I am a little confused about how they compute Karma, and by what is really important in that computation. I would think that it would be important to Plurk a little, respond a lot, and to gather a solid group of friends. Of those things, I would think that a Plurker’s level of responses to the Plurks of others would be most important of all. That is most obviously not the case, though. As an example, let’s take a look at four of my numbers:

Plurks: 227 Responses: 5356 Friends: 227 Karma 56.81

Now let’s take a look at some other semi-random Plurkers:

Plurks: 57 Responses: 154 Friends: 66 Karma: 47.51
Plurks: 141 Responses: 330 Friends: 98 Karma: 54.91
Plurks: 182 Responses:595 Friends: 264 Karma: 53.06

These are people that I like. I’m not saying anything against them at all. Like everybody else, they just show up and plurk. They have all been there about as long as I have. But the numbers above don’t make any sense to me. Even though I have had just about fifteen times the conversational participation that these Plurkers average, my Karma is not that far ahead of theirs.

I’m not sure what this tells us except that participation is not a very important part of the Karma computation. On my down side, I do not always have a page title on my timeline. I keep putting one in, but it won’t stay. When I come back the next time, it is gone. But I’m trying. Maybe I am getting unfriended a lot, although I honestly haven’t noticed that. I see and talk the same great people, day in and day out.

All I can figure is that very active participation is not factored heavily into the equation because, at that point, they figure they already have you hooked, so they don’t much care about rewarding you. And, of course, they are right. I am one of Plurk’s biggest boosters. I love the idea and I love the people. But I find the Karma formula to be, well, curious. ;o)

I’m KDFrawg on Plurk. If you see me, stop by and say “Hi!”