maybe because you're looking it as a communication tool and not a fan base?

What's the difference between a fan and a friend with the plurk feed off?

i think you don't see fan feeds, just friends, and you can use cliques to group friends, not fans. i think...

Right...so if everyone is a Friend, I get more functionality, but I can still turn the noisy ones off. Why would I ever want "Fans"?

just the same as not following someone who follows you. imho.

Not following someone is equivalent to turning their Plurk feed off. I don't get the difference between someone like that and a fan.

Except, of course, that I can't organize my fans or turn their feeds on (should they say something interesting).

yeah, that makes sense. i've sent friends requests to everybody who shows up as fans. i'll generally listen to you if you'll listen to me.

i see it as similar to the way livejournal lets me segment things, which i quite like.

Yeah, that was missing from Twitter, and it was sorely missed.

This threading is somewhat good, too. It changes the tone (you're not listening in on other conversations), but it's easier to follow.

absolutely. 140 chars may be too clonish, but plurk has def'ly added the things i wanted most.