a spectre is haunting Facebook. the spectre of Ello.

[Barry Egan]

http://www.dailydot.com/technology/ello-no-ads-social-web/

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.

http://betabeat.com/2014/09/mysterious-social-network-ello-explodes-in-popularity-for-people-fleeing-facebook/

....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.

Obviously this is never going to reach Facebook levels, but I do like the interface and the increased focus on privacy. 

Karakand, hook a comrade up with an invite.  :'(

[I'm a Puppy!]

But I am a product.
So are you and everyone you know. If you really think you're not then you're not paying attention.

[Joe Molotov]

Telling people they’re not something they don’t want to be.

[brob]

Beyond blocking out people who are not logged in and permitting nicknames, is ello even offering any privacy settings? (I'm hearing no)

Also, their "you are not the product" is just that ello themselves are not going to profit of off data, but that doesn't mean you won't get scraped or whatever.

[Barry Egan]

Brob-  you're right.  The people claiming increased privacy from the service don't seem to have any statements from the company itself one way or the other  :-/

Welp.

(Still want an invite)

[Great Rumbler]

oh look guys another social media site for me to post my cat pics on

[Kara]

Karakand, hook a comrade up with an invite.  :'(

I was ordered to infiltrate Twitter by the central committee years ago and have not been relieved of my post since, sorry.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Corrupting young, impressionable minds with social media.

[close]

I will make a dead drop to my handler and see what I can do for you doe.

[Human Snorenado]

I could use an invite. These puppy pics ain't gonna like themselves, just saying.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Under my umbrello, ello, ello, ello, ey, ey

[benjipwns]

Remember what she said when they saw the giraffes? I wish Ebert had lived to see gaming achieve that. (And then died so he didn't have to witness #gamergate destroy its beauty.)

[Human Snorenado]

I got an invite, it's very basic. Kinda like it, but whatever, it will probably go away in a couple months basically.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Can someone explain to me how a social network that doesn't allow advertisements or data mining is sustainable? What kind of business model does this operate on?

[benjipwns]

The strongest business model of all: hope.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

My crystal ball sez:

1) They'll jump on the first hugely inflated buyout offer they get from someone stupid like Yahoo.
2) The new owner will try to find a way to monetize the site because they just paid 900 billion dollars for it.
3) Everyone gets angry about being betrayed and jumps ship from the site.

[brob]

Get VC money to start shit
Get more VC money so you can make improvements (more users, retain users, monetization hooks, etc)
Start monetizing via whatever means planned
Sell and/or IPO and/or crash

do it all over again

Looking at the TOS for Ello, it seems very much like they are gonna do whatever once they get off the ground with regards to funding. the whole thing is very startup dudebro.

"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."


*jerkoff hand motion*

[Rufus]

Anyone remember Cuil?

[BobFromPikeCreek]

"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."

Hahaha. And there it is. People think they're going to get a large-scale, stable social networking platform without ads and data mining.

[nudemacusers]

the tos and faq are a complete turnoff. full of bobs and weaves from committing to any real vision/statement.

the visual design is ... ? I don't care for it at all.

[brob]

the visual design is ... ? I don't care for it at all.

Tumblr Minimalism

[Phoenix Dark]

I knew I should have bought stock in ghosts.

[I'm a Puppy!]

If google+ has shown me anything is that people are more than ready for a Facebook alternative.

[recursivelyenumerable]

"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."

lol, that's lawyers for you! can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em amirite?

[bluemax]

The strongest business model of all: hope.

So venture capitalism, angel investors and a lot of buzz words.

[Vertigo]

'Fleeing' Facebook?

The press have been doing some very handy PR for Ello this week you gotta get those clicks in what better than another Facebook rival?

Ello being pretty exclusive at the moment means everyone wants to get invited so they can brag. Once it's out of 'beta' and the plebs are let in I expect the hipsters and tech wankers will slither quietly back to Facebook and Twitter.

I see it makes a big push on privacy. Sadly in all reality no one really gives a shit about their privacy or they would actually sit and read the TOS of a lot of these sites and apps they have stuffed on their devices.

[toku]

Someone give me an invite. I don't want to be a late pleb.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I will also accept an invite if anyone has one

[TakingBackSunday]

me 2 pls

[recursivelyenumerable]

I've never really encountered any first-order discussion of Ello though, mostly just people discussing how other people are talking about it.

[brob]

http://www.fvckthemedia.com/issue43/op-ed

two quotes I thought were worthwhile

1)
What is Ello exactly? A cursory look into its history reveals a bit of funny fine print. Launched in 2013 as a "stealth mode startup," Ello pledges to provide a social network that is "simple, ad-free, and beautiful" -- presumably by doing away with the nasty business of commercializing social interaction, and providing some measure of transparency in its user-maker relations.

For a platform that brands itself as transparent, however, it seems difficult to string together three more insidious-sounding words than "stealth mode startup." If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's probably because you aren't involved in the "startup biz,' and so don't subscribe to the entrepreneurial canon of Businessweek or Inc. Magazine. Both of these publications do, in fact, define the term, specifically describing it as a form of savvy strategy with considerable advantages for launching new products: in not disclosing certain projected features or agendas, stealth mode companies acquire good will and seed money -- presumably, with the hopes of ultimately rolling out a sellable concept.

2)
Ello's handful of creators, whose faces are playfully and ominously obscured by the smiling logo on their homepage, seem to comprise a few good-natured white guys with a passion for clean design and vague charitable ambition. There is, however, at least one name missing from their team, that of Ello's only listed member on the Board of Directors, who also happens to be Managing Director at a venture capital firm. In fact, a quick search into Ello's records reveals $435,000 in venture capital funding from this very firm, of which Ello's site makes no mention; this, despite its promises of transparency, as outlined in its supposed manifesto.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I got in. pretty dumb.

[Phoenix Dark]

I log into facebook once a week to see who's pregnant now. Meanwhile I use twitter every day for a variety of stuff. That's enough social media for me.

[recursivelyenumerable]

stealth-mode startup just means you don't go around proclaiming to the world what your product is going to be until you actually have a product.

[naff]

got in and had a look at this   

COURIER D: undeliverable promises, shitty layout with a shitty community (tumblr already exists), stupid concept poorly executed (diaspora already exists). dead in a month.

[bluemax]

So now that everyone knows Ello took VC are they over it?

[Kara]

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.

*In other words, Ello is not bound by fiduciary duty as currently interpreted by the courts.

Anyway, at all this.

[seagrams hotsauce]

More like "Ellolol" amirite

[nudemacusers]

finally, a social media site that is meant to benefit the whole of society

[Great Rumbler]

Ellbola