Remember when we were all on Twitter, dumping our thoughts and ideas 140 characters at a time and having the time of our Internet lives? No? Well I do. That’s why I’m currently marveling at the war raging on for microblogging supremacy in the Filipino community. Well, in my mind at least.

Whose side are you on?

I find it astonishing to see Plurk being overrun by Filipinos. A few months ago, the majority of Filipino plurkers consisted of bloggers, web developers and online marketers who made the great switch from Twitter to Plurk approximately a year ago. Now, Plurk is the new deal among the Filipino Internet literate crowd. Also, Facebook. But that’s a blog post for another time.

Plurk’s charm is slowly dying on me. I’m starting to update my Twitter more often now. Internet gods help me, I’ve entertained the idea of moving back to Twitter permanently and leaving Plurk altogether. Fortunately, I haven’t seriously thought of actually doing it since, you know, it’s not really a big deal. I’m totally considering adding several items to my Plurker’s Manifesto, though. But yeah, there’s the itch of just sticking to one microblogging service where I can tell you guys what I’m eating, where I’m going or what TV show I’m currently watching but secretly hating.

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I’ve noticed that Plurk is slowly pulling in some of my non-Internet friends and acquaintances. A sign of increasing popularity in the Philippines, perhaps? If so, I guess it’s time for me to shove a blog post about Plurk down your throats. I’ve been a plurker for more than a month now, and by Blogosphere Law, that means I can already act like a Plurk expert! So here, ladies and gentlemen, is a list of requests demands for all veteran, newbie, and future plurkers. Read it and live your Plurk life by it for the common good.

1. Make your user name short and sweet. For those of you who still don’t have a Plurk account but are seriously considering getting one, make your user name as short as possible. During discussions, people may link to your Plurk profile by typing your user name preceded by the at symbol (e.g. @baddie = baddie). Don’t make it a hassle for them to type a really long user name. Also, avoid using alternating letters and numbers (e.g. b0p01s). It’s annoying.

2. Go easy on your display name. When you reach 40 karma, you’d be able to change your display name. This is fun for you, and if you manage to change your display name into something funny or entertaining, it could be fun for your Plurk friends as well. But, don’t overdo it. Changing your display name regularly can be annoying. Also, don’t use special characters. It may look cool for you, but it will probably look like garbage in other people’s eyes.

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