10 Minute Guide to Plurk – Part 3
Cliques – The Great Idea with the Awful Name
Want to read the earlier parts? Here are the links.
Part 1 – Getting Started
Part 2 – Let’s Get Plurking
Part 3a – Emoticon Cheat Sheet
Do you remember all the groups there were in school? There were the computer geeks, the rednecks (No, not the Jeff Foxworthy type, I mean the real rednecks…the ones who fit this profile). There were the cheerleaders, of course, and the jocks…and the other jocks, who were into sports, but not THOSE sports, and there were the…
You get the idea. 
Because of our school memories, cliques have a bad reputation. Having cliques automatically means that someone is left out.
Using cliques on Plurk is probably one of the biggest reasons so many people keep thinking of it as a teenage site. A LOT of people don’t like the idea of cliques, regardless of what they’re actually used for.
Especially on Plurk, which I can honestly say is the friendliest site I’ve ever been on online, the idea of being left out doesn’t feel good.
Still, I think Plurk Cliques are an absolutely awesome idea, if you can get around the name.
When I asked people what questions they’ve had about Plurk, two people mentioned cliques. Kirako said, “Cliques! It says we’re supposed to be able to filter plurks by clique but I guess that doesn’t work yet. Still would like some answers on it.” and RogueTess said, “Still never made a clique. Everyone can see all friends. Is it the clique feature that makes them different? Hmmm.”
It does say we should be able to filter our timeline, but I’ve tried everything I can think of to get it to work, and nothing happens. I’m guessing that ability hasn’t actually been turned on yet. I have writen the devs, otherwise known as the A-team, to ask how to use this feature and when we’ll be able to do it. As soon as I hear back from them, I will let you know.
So, since they can’t filter the timeline yet, what is their purpose and how do you use them?
Did you know you’ve actually used Cliques before? Oh, they weren’t called that, possibly because most applications we use aren’t written expecting their primary market to be teens.
So, the last time you used them, they may have had the boring name of folders. If you use Gmail, you’ll know them as groups. But by any name, it’s still the same thing:
A selection of people that you can send a message to quickly and easily.
I have one on Gmail for people who don’t mind reading the original version of a story I’ve been working on for a year or so. Typos and all, they get to see it, and let me know what they think. I’m betting that in your e-mail you have a way of separating certain people also.
Skype is the only other chat program that I know that allows you to separate people into groups, but in Skype you have to open a new window to communicate with them.
In Plurk, I just set up a clique using whatever criteria I want, write the clique’s name the same as I would send a private message, and hit Plurk.
If you look at the upper left corner of your plurk screen, you’ll see the options shown above. Each of these will open a pop-up window that you can interact with. To create or edit your cliques, you need to click on “My Friends.”
In the orange box that pops up, you will see a row of tabs. Cliques is the second one. By the way, if you haven’t looked under “Blocked users” yet, you might want to. I know when they added it a few days ago, several users found people blocked that they hadn’t added there.
Now you’re ready to start adding members.
If you already know the names of the people you want in your group, this part is easy. Start typing the name of the person you want to add, and Plurk brings up a suggestion box to complete the name for you.
But what if you want to create a list and DON’T know everyone’s name?
This makes things a little harder. Plurk doesn’t give you a list of people to choose from, you have to add names to the box instead, which means you need to know who you’re going to add.
After a bit of experimenting, I found that using the two window method was easiest.
Another easy way to know who to add is to ask. I created four or five cliques just from asking questions such as:
How many plurkers are work (or stay) at home parents?
How many do work with Social Media?
and any other groups I could think of that I might want to send specific messages to at some time or another.
If you look down at the Plurk bar (where you write your messages), you’ll see a choice that says “Private plurks, languages, & options.”
A quick note here. You can actually send a plurk to a clique and other individual friends who might be interested. Just include all the names on the line where I wrote Marketing.
Now, type in your message on the message bar, click the big red Plurk button, and viola, you’ve sent a message to your clique!
You can look to see if you have any private messages (or look at the messages that you’ve sent if you want to check for replies or count how many you’ve sent for the day) by clicking the blue box in the bottom right corner of the scrollbar and choosing which view you want.
Wow, it’s hard to believe we’ve almost finished discussing Plurk. Still to come, mobile plurking and a cheat sheet with plurk hints and resources. If you’re not a friend on Plurk yet, use this link to join and add me (please, send a friend request, Plurk only adds as a fan). Plus, you can still leave any questions I haven’t answered yet, either here or on Plurk.
