It has been interesting to watch the forays into Plurkdom by the famous people of the blogosphere. A few have made it with some success, while others have failed fairly completely, at least so far. You all know who you are, so there is no need to go into the “Who?” question, especially since most of the rest of us have been watching, with at least a little humor.

In the world occupied by the blog-lords, most of the communication for the bulk of the heavy hitters is one way. They talk and readers listen. There are a few very refreshing exceptions, I am very happy to say. Still, this tendency has made Twitter the venue of choice for the bloggers most people regard as A-Listers. Because Twitter is for announcements and Plurk is for conversations (Michael W. Jones, 2008) Twitter fits into the A-List modus operandi perfectly, where Plurk does not.

To make it on Plurk, at any level, a person has to interact, no matter who they are. The number of followers, and the ego that the followers create, does not matter. What matters is the ability to treat people as human beings and not as abstract numbers. Popping in once in a while and announcing how important you are is not enough. Dropping by and making a royal pronouncement is not enough. either.

You have to go back to your posts and interact with the people that respond. You have to be willing to respond in other people’s threads, to engage with others in actual conversation. If you don’t do that, you may be able bring thousands of followers with you, and you may have a lot of Karma as a result, but you won’t be a popular Plurker. You can’t have that without exercising the social skills required to interact with actual people on a some common level.

As an example of doing it right, look at the current leading Plurker, WendyKnits. She has been on my friends list for quite a while and, since I don’t keep track of Karma leaders, I had no idea she was doing so well. She is a great conversationalist and a very kind and funny woman. She demonstrates a great command of the skills necessary to be both a top Plurker and a popular Plurker. WendyKnits is an extraordinary Plurker, is what she is.

And let’s not forget MichDdot, MikeonTV, and all the rest of the Big League Plurkers who are real people when they are on the site, adding value to Plurk every time they come to the site, people that we get to know and love. No ivory towers for these folks. The people that know how to deal with people are the best Plurkers.

Thus does Plurk qualify as a great social leveler of people. It does not matter how famous you are if you feel that only the numbers matter, and would rather announce than converse. That’s another thing I love about Plurk; there is a difference between blogospheric fame and having good Plurk-friends. It doesn’t matter what you did before and somewhere else. It just matters how great a person you are on Plurk.

I’m KDFrawg on Plurk. I’m not great but I know a bunch of Plurkers that are.