Previously I showed you how to change the CSS on the top timeline.  Now let’s change the background on the bottom part of the Plurk Page.  This is the background and does not affect the dashboard unless you make the dashboard transparent.  To change it go to the top left corner of the Plurk Timeline where it says My Profile and click on the edit link.

Here’s the code:

body, html {
    background-image: url(http://i37.tinypic.com/24fb3f6.gif);
    background-repeat: repeat;
    color: white;
}

That’s it.  What?  You expecting more?

Changing the Plurk Timeline background is the most important thing to change on your Plurk theme.  This is where all the Plurking happens, so it’s the most important aspect of your Plurk Design.  Don’t sweat it, it’s easy.  Just enter the following code:

#timeline_holder {
background-image: url(http://www.yoururlhere.com/yourimage.jpg);
background-repeat: repeat;
}

If you are not sure about where the background image is located, you can right click on an image and choose “View Image”.  Than copy the location in the url bar at the top of your browser.

Wait a second?  You want to hide the karma creature when you have to work so hard to get the privilege to get a new karma creature?  If you decide to hide the little karma shrine creature do this:

Go to My Profile in the upper left hand corner and click the edit button.

Where it says “Customize Your Profile With CSS” enter the following:

#dynamic_logo { opacity:0;filter:alpha(opacity=0);zoom:1 }

That’s it.  There’s other ways to do it, but this will get the job done in the easiest way possible.

So what does Karma on Plurk get you?  Well, someone who wanted true Karma wouldn’t expect any Karma Credits, but hey I’m glad you asked! We previously discussed how to get plurk Karma, now I’ll show you what you can cash out on.

The first thing, my favorite is the Karma Creatures.  I wished their were more Karma creatures you can get, but I can show you how to make your own Karma Creatures.  But that is in the future timeline, so back to the wealth of Karma Credits.

The Karma Creature is the little guy in the upper right hand corner of your timeline.

The next best thing is Emoticons.  Want to be able to express your self in a more sort of way.  Than Karma Credits can help you out with exclusive emoticons.

Plurk Display Name:

At 40 points you can change your Plurk Display Name instead of your name you filled out when you started.

Profile Page Name:

At 10 Karma Points you can create a Profile Title Page

So what are you waiting for.  Go get some Karma, and make good things happen.

It’s easy to get Good Karma.  But there’s Bad Karma, also.  If you do good things, good things happen.  Do bad things, and bad things happen(aka lower Karma).

Do good things:

• Edit Your Profile
• Plurk Every Day - don’t miss a day!
• Gain the respect of friends and Fans
• Receive Responses from other Plurkers to your plurks
• Inviting real friends

Do bad things:

• If someone rejects your friendship request
• If friends or fans unfollow your plurks
• Spamming
• Inactivity - but I guess if you stop plurking I guess you won’t be too worried about Karma will you.  Don’t blame us if something bad happens.

Other tips:

• Don’t plurk too much - this can be considered as spam, or purposely trying to bump up your Karma too fast.
• Try to engage plurkers in your life - if you get responses you get Karma

You’ve decided to signup for Plurk?  Gave up on Twitter and too lazy to blog?  That’s in jest of course, but still you are ready to take on a better way to social journal?  You’re at the right place to get you going quick.  It’s so easy, you don’t need a guide to do it!  Wait, was that my out loud voice?

First click on the big red button that says “Signup for Free”.  A little box will appear asking for a username, email, and password.  Fill it out, and you are taking right into your Plurk Dashboard.  It takes you into the dashboard, but don’t forget to check your email.  You’ll need to click on an activation email, but it’s not important right away because Plurk lets you get started right away.

Here’s a default theme you get started with.  The blue part is the timeline.  It scrolls horizontally.  This is where your plurks will show up, and also the plurks of your friends, and if you are a fan of someone that is where their plurks will show up.

The bottom orange part shows your dashboard which includes your profile and picture, your Karma Stats, Your Friends, and Your Fans.

When you first sign up, an introductory guide pops up to guide you through getting started.  It recommends some people you might want to follow, and is a starting guide.  Click through them and it takes you to the dashboard.

Now, let’s start your first post:

Right after the introductory guide, it shows you where to enter your plurk, right in the center of the screen.

Type something in and then click the Plurk button right next to it.  Your plurk immediately shows up in the timeline.

Your friends, or plurkers plurks show in the timeline also:

Now, that you have plurked, your Karma credits go up.

Congratulations!  You just received some good Karma.  Now you can build up some more Karma as I will be talking here soon on ways to build that Karma up even quicker.  Hold tight!

This is plurk.  A great new concept, based upon a fairly new concept, based upon an old concept.  First there was a blog, than there was a microblog made popular by Twitter, now there is Plurk.  In my opinion plurk is a natural progression of Twitter.  Twitter allows you to have your one sentence blog, and you can have followers.  But beyond that there isn’t many capabilities as a tool to keep you wanting to come back and check on comments from others or really get engaged with it.

That’s where Plurk comes in.  It’s Twitter, but with features that will keep you coming back, and keep your friends coming back.

Here is an example of a plurk page.  The top part(blue) is the time line.  This is where all your plurks(or messages) are stored.  The neat thing here is that the messages scroll horizontally instead of vertically.  It literally is a timeline.  You can see when you posted, and the progress of your monologue.  It’s an interesting twist to journaling.

And features!  As I was saying earlier, Plurk has plenty of features that make this a superior tool.  The keyword is integration.  Whereas Twitter has little to no integration, Plurk is bursting at the seams with it.

Here are a few:

A guide to get you started.

EMOTICONS!

Karma - I’m going to discuss this more thoroughly in a future article.  But just remember this with Karma, “Do good things, and good things happen”.  You can earn Karma by participating in the plurk social community and posting Plurks.  Another feature to get you more involved with Plurk over Twitter.

Friends - Similar to all Social Networking sites.  But why would you want to join a site unless you can make friends?

Fans - similar to friends, but they only follow your timeline.

Widgets - Problem with Twitter is they have no way to share your tweets with anyone.  People have to go to the Twitter page to view them.  People have now created plugins and whatnot, but they are third party, just making more hassle.  With Plurk, they have eliminated that problem with custom Widgets!  You can go in and add html, pics and graphics to share your plurks with the world.

And most importantly - CUSTOMIZATION!  That’s why you are here right?  To learn about plurk themes and how to customize them to your liking?  Well, you can do all of that in the Customize Profile Dashboard.  Change the color and style of your Plurker’s Lair with CSS, and some of Plurk’s tools.  Also, get you a Karma creature(of course once you’ve earned enough Karma Credits).

More features include:

Alerts
Interesting Plurkers
Join Cliques (Groups)
Social Integration - Youtube, Flickr, links and more can be added right to the timeline
Get more features with the more Karma points you get
You can edit your messages
Different messages - not just “this is what I’m doing right now” message

To sum things up Plurk is a social journal that chronicles your life.  If you are into blogging, twittering, or have joined any social networks I highly recommend Plurk.  If you need help getting started or want to use some of our templates, stick around because there’s lots more to come.