Eyes & Ears On Social Media

Community Migration: Natural Evolution?

June 18, 2008 – 7:00 pm | by Daryl Tay

Daphne plurked today about leaving Plurk to concentrate on ping.sg as well as Twitter and because things were just getting too overwhelming for her to keep up with everything at once.

It got me thinking about whether this is a natural progression of sorts. People join an online community until the benefits of another (uptime for Plurk) far outweigh the previous benefits of another (Twitter), or the conversations on Plurk are more intense/genuine than those on the shoutbox on ping.sg. What do we do when that happens?

I know Pat Law has mentioned a very good point that people move on to better value propositions. That’s why we’re not on Friendster or ICQ anymore. If the community shifts to a new “tool”, should it matter? After all it’s people-centric rather than platform-centric isn’t it?

Of course, I’m not saying either ping.sg or Twitter are inferior, unworthy platforms. I think ping is still great for getting the latest buzz in the local blogosphere and log on at least thrice a day to check out the newest posts, Twitter runs in the background on Twhirl for stuff to pop up once in awhile. But when faced with a new, potentially better tool, what happens?

One reason also why the ping.sg shoutbox is less “vibrant” now is because many of the pingsters are on Plurk as well. This suggests that people see more value there, or are joining it because everyone is as well, or a combination of both, but that results in ping.sg being less lively. Natural evolution of online platforms? Innovate and keep your communities or die?

I pretty much understand where Daphne is coming from, so I ask the local community because I’m curious: If you’ve shifted to Plurk, do you feel like you should stick with your previous platforms just ‘cos? Or does the higher value proposition outweigh all? Very curious to know the various views behind this.

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  1. 6 Responses to “Community Migration: Natural Evolution?”

  2. By Jonathan Wong on Jun 18, 2008 | Reply

    Absolutely not.

    One week after I set up my Facebook profile and realized that it can do everything that Friendster can and more, I deleted my Friendster account within a week.

  3. By nadnut on Jun 18, 2008 | Reply

    I guess its a natural progression.

    Likewise, I’ve moved from Friendster to Facebook. From Twitter to Plurk. Novelty maybe? But isn’t how things are usually? Fads and all? E.g. from Friendster, MySpace, Multiply etc and now to Facebook.

    I find Plurk have better conversations and I get to interact more with friends (and strangers) as compared to Twitter or anywhere else. That’s why I made the choice to move to Plurk. :)

  4. By Mark on Jun 18, 2008 | Reply

    My first thought on this was “If my friendster account can do what my facebook account can do, would i go back and use it as actively as i used to?”

    With Google;s FriendConnect making it possible, i don’t think i will. But if twitter fixed their bugs and has what Plurk has, I think I’ll stay with Twitter.

    I guess i’ll go where the ppl are!

  5. By Ridz on Jun 19, 2008 | Reply

    I think Mark struck it with “I guess i’ll go where the ppl are!”

    I feel a large component of the decision lies with the community that exists in the tool.

    Take pownce for example. It can do almost everything Twitter can and more! But we’re still on twitter because there just isn’t enough people on pownce to make it ‘as valuable’.

    Just my 2 cents

  6. By Daryl Tay on Jun 19, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks everyone for the input! I see it’s a combination of both the added value “can X do what Y can do and more” as well as “is everyone on it”. Point to note for new platforms I guess. Maybe you don’t necessarily have to be the best, but you DO need to be able to get communities on board.

  7. By brian on Jun 19, 2008 | Reply

    i think there’s value in @scobleizer’s outlook toward this. “I’ll go where the conversation is”

    Ping has it’s niche of user-generated content and top 10 posts in the last 24 hours, plurk will never beat that.

    but conversations on plurk far outweigh that chatbox on ping. Daphne can choose to spend time with the ones still on that chatbox, but i think there’s more value to those conversations happening on plurk.

    As a blogger, i’ve seen the information become decentralised, i try to synch it all back to a common point, but even then, something’s got to give.. but it’s useful to have a slew of social applications to just be there where those conversations take place -)

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