Be more transparent about what you're doing to the service.

I agree, you are funny! (lmao)

But all kidding aside - just a little more transparency will go a long way with your loyal users. Please just update more often and let us know in advance when downtime is going to occur - when possible of course. ( Delete or Edit)

Ryan, the issue is not whether you know about the problems or are bothered by them. The issue is the manner in which your company does or does not *communicate* about the problems with users, in a timely, transparent fashion. ( Delete or Edit)

agreed.
lets vote plurk off the island.
i kid. i love plurk....when its working. ( Delete or Edit)

If you're working on the servers then why not pull the site down temporarily? I'd much rather see the "Plurk is down for maintenance" screen than continually have problems reading anything. ( Delete or Edit)

Ryan, I'm glad that you all are "aware" of the problems, but frankly this "in light of being more transparent" comment feels like a slap in the face. Commenting here—where there are fewer than thirty people—that your service is continuing to be unstable is useless. It's patently obvious to the entire userbase that Plurk is having problems because the servers keep going down. If you're truly interested in being transparent and updating your users, you should change the disingenuous text on the "maintenance" Web page and the "page not found" error page to be honest: your system is down and will be back when you can get it working. It's not "routine maintenance." ( Delete or Edit)

If you care to specify exactly how it's broken, feel free to do so, and specify what device and browser you are attempting to use; as it behaves correctly on every device we own between us, with no missing functionality, finding such errors is difficult without such hints. I see the complaint about the character limit – this is a minor, easily resolved oversight (which, if nobody has done so yet, I will resolve myself immediately).

I do not feel that a purely aesthetic change merits significant forewarning, however – and I doubt you would, either, if it hadn't broken whatever it broke (and even with warning, what would you actually do about it? You wouldn't know there would be a problem) ( Delete or Edit)

I am using an iPhone on it's innate Safari browser. It's a First Generation iPhone (if that matters).

The sheer size of the font going from "teeny teeny tiny" to a "I could read this from across the room" size is kind of excessive (but aesthetic, sure, but still really annoying).

When clicking on another person's name (as in an @ plurkperson), it takes you to the full page (which doesn't always correctly load and takes a REALLY long time). Aesthetics, I like it.

The character limit is really annoying and very frustrating.

Some friends of mine (though I'm not sure what phone's they're using) have stated that it all "runs together". http://www.plurk.com/p/2wvja4

And despite your belief that aesthetic change doesn't merit forewarning, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would beg to differ. When Facebook made a ton of changes, there was an uproar. I'm in no way saying don't make the change, but a forewarning would have been nice, regardless of whether YOU think it was necessary. ( Delete or Edit)

We've seen the comments about things "running together", but since they seem to be caused by the same versions of Mobile IE we're testing, actually figuring out what's wrong is nontrivial.

Are you trying to view responses? You click the little icon on the right, with a number by it. If you think this is nonobvious, I agree, and have raised the issue already. As for font size, I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to, beyond some buttons having REALLY BIG TEXT for no really good reason. Working on the character limit at this second. ( Delete or Edit)

I'm not retarded. I see where you click on the little "chat bubble" icon to see responses. When you type a response (or a new plurk), the font inside the text box is massive. Almost double anything else viewed on the mobile website.

Thank you for fixing the character limit issue. Nothing more annoying than typing a response only to have it lost. ( Delete or Edit)

To save on everyone else here jumping on me, I think I'll leave someone else to answer that. I suspect it primarily relates to a style of working. ( Delete or Edit)

We did. *points*

Unless they speak twenty-five languages they aren't much good, though. Furthermore, it wouldn't (and didn't) actually help in the slightest. For them to say something, we need to say something first. As nineteen people here have noticed, this rarely actually happens (if you look back, you'll find that it actually did happen over a year ago, but that sort of thing apparently died out). ( Delete or Edit)

Henceforth, I will not attempt to communicate with users either. Evidently, you don't appreciate it. ( Delete or Edit)

Katharine, To be completely honest, whether or not you decide to respond any further won't help the issue. You've taken a rather snotty tone with me and rather than retort in a similar fashion, I've opted to just address the things that have been causing me problems directly. The childish manner in which you've talked to me has been everything but professional. And while I appreciate you changing the character limit problem, you've done nothing more than make snide remarks to people.

This is a service. If someone talked to me like that while I got an oil change I'd be pitching a FIT. I have been supportive of Plurk as a service for a very long time and enjoy it very much. The original thread was regarding being transparent about what's going on with plurk and the changes that have NOT been posted but suddenly show up, occasionally borked and unusable.

You share a link to someone's personal plurk page, which does nothing for me. I'm sorry. They're not my friend and while they may have posted an update on what's going on some year ago, this doesn't seem to affect what's happening in the here and now. You yourself have told us to "look back." Why didn't you just link the direct plurk in which you were referencing rather than taking the rather childish approach of forcing us to hope that we know exactly what you're talking about when looking through the archives of someone's plurk page with whom we've never read. That doesn't even make sense.

From a professional standpoint, your "I'll just ignore you" attitude further shows your disregard to the user experience... for a service you help maintain and work for. Most business practices would fail if they all employed your attitude about things.

This was not meant to be a "bash on Katharine" day, nor is it a bash on the user thread either. It is a simple request. Let users know when you're making major changes. What you consider only "aesthetic" is something major considering how much it isn't working on many phones. It isn't working correctly on iphones either. It's semi-tolerable, but at least the old mobile site worked. Your personal opinion is one thing, but to say that the entirety of Plurk employees share your attitude is a little condescending and assumptive. ( Delete or Edit)

Katharine, To be completely honest, whether or not you decide to respond any further won't help the issue. You've taken a rather snotty tone with me and rather than retort in a similar fashion, I've opted to just address the things that have been causing me problems directly. The childish manner in which you've talked to me has been everything but professional. And while I appreciate you changing the character limit problem, you've done nothing more than make snide remarks to people.

This is a service. If someone talked to me like that while I got an oil change I'd be pitching a FIT. I have been supportive of Plurk as a service for a very long time and enjoy it very much. The original thread was regarding being transparent about what's going on with plurk and the changes that have NOT been posted but suddenly show up, occasionally borked and unusable.

You share a link to someone's personal plurk page, which does nothing for me. I'm sorry. They're not my friend and while they may have posted an update on what's going on some year ago, this doesn't seem to affect what's happening in the here and now. You yourself have told us to "look back." Why didn't you just link the direct plurk in which you were referencing rather than taking the rather childish approach of forcing us to hope that we know exactly what you're talking about when looking through the archives of someone's plurk page with whom we've never read. That doesn't even make sense.

From a professional standpoint, your "I'll just ignore you" attitude further shows your disregard to the user experience... for a service you help maintain and work for. Most business practices would fail if they all employed your attitude about things.

This was not meant to be a "bash on Katharine" day, nor is it a bash on the user thread either. It is a simple request. Let users know when you're making major changes. What you consider only "aesthetic" is something major considering how much it isn't working on many phones. It isn't working correctly on iphones either. It's semi-tolerable, but at least the old mobile site worked. Your personal opinion is one thing, but to say that the entirety of Plurk employees share your attitude is a little condescending and assumptive. ( Delete or Edit)

I don't think Plurk employees share Katharine's attitude about this particular issue. To put things in perspective, if Katharine is http://www.plurk.com/Katharine , then from her profile, she is 17, and she might be a little defensive when people start ragging on her.

I've found that a personal email to Alvin Woon, one of the co-founders of Plurk, resulted in very quick and a professional response. ( Delete or Edit)

Assuming that I have Alvin Woon's personal email in order to inquire about some issues with plurk, this might pose as a fantastic idea. However, it fails to help the situation any.

Another point that should be made is the fact that Plurk employees have not made it clear that they're no longer using GetStatisfaction as a means of listening to user concerns and issues. There was a post (which I simply cannot find again for some reason) somewhere in the archives in which Amir stated that it was better to use the contact form instead. However, because of Plurk's inability to be more transparent, people continue to come here to seek answers and report problems they're experiencing (especially if they, like me, have had better luck in the past with regard to communication).

Katharine's blatant disregard for carrying herself in a professional way should not be waived because she posts on her personal Plurk page that she is 17 years old. To be believe **anything** on the internet is ignorant and silly. While many people are very honest, I have to take with a grain of salt, something such as age on a site that does no actual validation of age. Simply stated, I could put that I'm 100 years old, but that doesn't make me 100.

If Katharine is indeed 17 years old, then Plurk should have used more discretion when giving her employee rights and abilities. Her age does not give her an unwritten excuse for poor behavior, period. If I cannot assume that all of Plurk's employees share the same bad attitude that Katharine does with regard to the user experience, then she should in turn, not write off all users based on the comment of one person (as she blatantly states, publically, http://www.plurk.com/p/2xc9w0).

If Plurk is no longer going to use the services of GetSatisfaction as a means for the user to report bugs and problems, then they should state that on their contact list. It was pointed out that it was left available for users to look for fixes (such as CSS codes) and explanations for things that have already been hashed out here. Their lack of transparency again and again have yielded only childish responses from one employee and multiple people attempting to make a point.

If you don't want users using GetSatisfaction, then get rid of it. Archive the information to allow users to look through it, but remove it as an ability to post for everyone. Make problem reporting easier to find. Talk to people like Katharine and explain exactly how to handle themselves professionally, before allowing them access to berate and belittle people as she assumes that my "issues" are easily corrected with a condescending attitude. Period. ( Delete or Edit)

Taja, you might have better luck starting another thread, since this topic was originally intended to suggest to Plurk that their userbase might not be so hostile/frustrated/upset/caught by surprise if the staff engaged them proactively. ( Delete or Edit)

you have a good point, unfortunately.

I'll do that. ( Delete or Edit)

Thanks for the heads up, Amir!

I remember Alvin mentioning some time back that a new support system was on its way. I hope it works as well as you hope, and can bring the Plurk community back together in making Plurk the best it can be! ( Delete or Edit)