true that. I wonder how it would affect the service if they didn't even have it

traffic would drop off big time (& go twitter) w/o the Karma rating. ...

Building your 'status' on twitter is about contributing something valuable and gaining followers. Here... its just noise for karma.

not convinced that most people on Twitter are concerned about contributing something valuable

maybe not, but the motivation to Plurk is a lot higher (to some) than it is to Tweet.

motivation = good for plurk. but again, it's the catalyst for motivation that bugs me.

yeah, agreed. Anyway, once you get over the karma you're still left with a better interface

Karma is LAME.

Lowest common denominators. Twitter doesn't serve it. Plurk does.