robnuguid14 (rob) on Plurk
Before I developed a habit of answering the question “What’s happening?” everyday, I had been an active aficionado of Plurk. In a nutshell, it is Twitter plus eye-candy graphics and minus simplicity. It allows users to “plurk” using a set of operators ranging from a simple “is” to an altruistic “shares.” Furthermore, it presents a chat-like approach where users can virtually talk with one another within a plurk even when the things they’re talking about are way out off topic.
Prior to being a Plurker, I had remained an introvert blogger posting almost pointless entries at my then-active blog, robology.i.ph. I used to talk about my Saturdays which, I now admit, are rather mundane and do not deserve to be shared with anyone. I even made an effort to share my grades publicly during the first semester of my first year in college. Although it was my blog and therefore I was practically free to share anything that pops in my mind, I think a huge portion of what I posted back then was inappropriate. That was the scenario before I joined Plurk.
The day I joined Plurk (December 20, 2008) is the crossroad of my online odyssey. Just after five minutes of my stay there, I met online buddies, majority of whom were Manila Science High School students. We talked about everything, anything at all. And before I knew it, my Plurk timeline was converted to an online chat box where I held frequent conversations with strangers who I could – and would never – have even approached in real life.
At first, I adopted (and even propagated) the spokening dollar regime on Plurk. Needless to say, I reply and talk with my Plurk buddies in straight English only. Some of them bothered to reciprocate my use of the English language while some basically thought that I could use a dose of Tagalog words, and so they bombarded me with those. But after some time, my nationalism won over my reluctance. And I guess you know what happened next.
I came up with the idea of naming my Plurk timeline Journey in Letters since my then-active blog was entitled Journey in Words. The idea behind it was very simple: plurks are shorter than blog posts and letters are shorter than words, and so to make it appropriate, I just replaced the latter with the former. Then, presto! Journey in Letters was born.
I also became an altruistic user of Plurk by helping the site grow in my simple ways and means. I spearheaded the development of PlurkLovers.co.cc, a small forum-based community for Filipino Plurkers. I also enlisted as a Plurk translator where I translated English messages to Filipino so that those who are not proficient with the English language can still use Plurk. I even went as far as being one of the top translators, and up until now (after three years of not using Plurk), I’m still in the third place of the most active contributors.
Third Top Translator
For the most part, I was a responder; meaning, I seldom plurk myself but I respond to other people’s plurks frequently. Maybe that’s the reason why I managed to score 900+ friends and 350+ fans, which are still my friends and fans, respectively up to now.
But good times have to end – they always have to.
On June 9, 2009, I made one of the greatest decisions in my online odyssey: I left Plurk for Twitter. The reason is primarily school. I cannot afford to plurk at least once in 24 hours due to my major subjects and therefore my Karma will go down, down, down to zero. In order to solve the dilemma, I created a Twitter account and freezed my Plurk account. That way, I can still the benefits of microblogging without worrying about a steep drop in points or whatever. Subsequent with this leap was the fact that I changed all of my usernames from robnuguid14 to just robnuguid. Allow me to add a rhetorical remark that the “14″ signifies my childhood quirkiness, and erasing it from my username makes it look more formal.
And so, I’ve been on Twitter since then and I’ve failed to visit my Plurk account.
By chance, I happened to visit my Plurk timeline earlier today. The sudden rush of memories was overpowering in an arcane way. I browsed through my posts – six months’ worth of memories. Indeed, Plurk has been a mute witness to my joys, disappointments, and frustrations as a college student. And that prompted me to do this one post about one of the best things that happened in my online life.
