You are not a product,” Ello's manifesto states. It asks readers whether they agree or disagree. Who wants to agree? By telling people they’re not something they don’t want to be, the Ello team has kicked up interest in their experimental social hub.
....Ello's founder told Betabeat that he’s seeing 4000 new signups each hour. People are frantically tweeting each other about Ello, and traffic on our Ello stories from six months back has exploded.
So what is Ello? Ello is an anachronistic social network designed by Paul Budnitz, designer toy maker, bike builder and author extraordinaire. It’s a social network with a manifesto — a grandiose cry for social networking that empowers people, and against social networks that lie, manipulate you and treat you like a product.
...It’s like a paired-down mix of Tumblr and Facebook, only more sleek and clean, with panels and buttons designed to be so sparse that they hardly infringe on the white space of each page.
Karakand, hook a comrade up with an invite. :'(
"According to our lawyer, we should also tell you that Ello's rules and policies do not create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act in any particular manner. And we reserve the right to change these rules at any time. So please play nice, be respectful, and have fun."
the visual design is ... ? I don't care for it at all.
"According to our lawyer, we should also tell you that Ello's rules and policies do not create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act in any particular manner. And we reserve the right to change these rules at any time. So please play nice, be respectful, and have fun."
The strongest business model of all: hope.
A BETTER WAY
October 23, 2014
Hi there.
There has been some speculation in the press since our launch 11 weeks ago that Ello will someday be forced to allow paid ads on our social network.
With virtually everybody else relying on ads to make money, some members of the tech elite are finding it hard to imagine there is a better way.
But 2014 is not 2004, and the world has changed.
To assure that Ello always remains ad-free, today Ello converted to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC).
A Benefit Corporation is a new kind of for-profit company in the USA that exists to produce a benefit for society as a whole — not just to make money for its investors.
The Ello PBC charter states in the strongest legal terms possible that:
1. Ello shall never make money from selling ads;
2. Ello shall never make money from selling user data; and
3. In the event that Ello is ever sold, the new owners will have to comply by these terms.
In other words, Ello exists for your benefit, and will never show ads or sell user data.
Simple, beautiful, and ad-free.
There is a better way.