<p><pre><code> You never have to pay anything, and you can keep using
Ello forever, for free. By choosing to buy a feature now
and then for a very small amount of money you support
our work and help us make Ello better and better.
</code></pre>
This is way too generous and altruistic to be practical. They obviously mean well, but this is effectively a donation-based model and it very rarely works in practice.<p>What I think they should do is to offer personal accounts for free and charge for enterprise presence. I know a handful of people who use Facebook and Twitter in read-only mode and who follow just the companies. They effectively use social networks as a news feed of product updates, coupons, deals, discounts, etc. Moreover, they explicitly seek out the companies and follow them. If you think about it, it's an insane arrangement - you have people opting in to hear to what you have to say. This is valuable, this is something worth paying for <i>and</i> it keeps the network free for the individuals.
Yesterday my Facebook newsfeed blew up with non-tech friends posting about Ello. No-one is signing up because it works better, they just all want out of Facebook.<p>I don't know if Ello will take off, but there is definitely a massive demand for "anything but Facebook".
I'm sorry, but the UI is so confusing and clunky, it does not appeal to me. Plus, if we don't want ads, there's alpha.app.net - scalable, has a powerful API, actively developed, and embraced by many of us already. They just need to rebrand as this whole subdomain/alpha thing bothers.
I'd prefer to go with a distributed social network, of which there are many (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_software_and_protocols_for_distributed_social_networking" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_software_and_prot...</a>), but none seems to have developed a great deal of traction.
Broken in Opera 12, astonishingly badly. Literally no way to contact anyone of their team in any way (email, twitter) but through ello itself.<p>Edit: It was pointed out that there is an email adress, though a very skillfully hidden one.
Ugh... just scrolling through that page adds TON of baggage in the browser history. So much for the back button.<p>If I didn't click a link or a button, don't add things to history. Please.
Classic. It is just free! Only charging (once) to add "special features". Curious what their cost projections are that they think this will work...
Ello looks like it raised a seed round from Fresh Tracks Capital in Vermont:<p>"Ello.co is a beautiful, simple & transparent ad-free social network. Ello is designed with the end user in mind, not advertisers, promising “You are not a product”. The site is a collaboration between Paul Budnitz, the graphic design lab Berger & Föhr, and the technologists at Mode Set."<p><a href="http://www.freshtrackscap.com/fund-iii-companies/Ello" rel="nofollow">http://www.freshtrackscap.com/fund-iii-companies/Ello</a><p>Does anyone know any more about Fresh Tracks?
If you scroll down the page and then hit the back button in the browser; you're in an infinite loop on the ello.co website.<p>Highly annoying is an understatement.
It is just free., but what is it? Here:<p>> Ello is a simple, beautiful, and ad-free social network created by a small group of artists and designers.
Ok, i see the appeal. A social network that promises to be different than facebook can reach quite some people, and that will grow every time there is something perceived as being wrong with facebook.<p>On the other hand, they also claim to be beautiful. And I really don't think so. It is different, that makes it nice. But black on grey with grey typewriter font, retro-boxes and favicon-sized avatar images mixed with scroll-indicators from the latest trend - that is a mess.<p>But at least they are not a 0815-modern website, designwise, maybe they can reach somethin nice with the approach.
Ad free and with no data mining like facebook and twitter used to be?<p>Things start well, but things change, and sadly I see no reason why history won't repeat itself. Goodwill doesn't pay for hosting or bandwidth and most social network users simply aren't willing to pay enough out of their own pocket, particularly not when there are free alternatives.
What makes me bullish on ello is that it seems like there is an incredible team behind it.<p><pre><code> - Paul Bundtz - Founder of Kidrobot
- Berger and Fohr - Art Design Studio
- Mode Set - Agile Software Consultancy
</code></pre>
All these representatives would be successful on their own. It seems like they're combing forces for something BIG
I remember a time, back in my QuakeWorld addict days, when I use to read .plan file updates.<p>Are there any technical reasons why the old finger / .plan system couldn't be revived to replace facebook, twitter, etc, with an open and simple social network?
Invite only. The first profile I see on their homepage is <a href="https://ello.co/bitchesonbicycles" rel="nofollow">https://ello.co/bitchesonbicycles</a> with 2392 followers. I guess I don't want to be invited.
I've been wondering about alternatives to Twitter as Twitter slowly circles the shit-drain as they try to copy Facebook. Will wait and see about Ello.<p>Have to say, websites with egregious javascript can be so annoying.
Broken on my work pc. Guess I can't use it at work... guess I can be productive instead.<p>Not sure how they can stay in business if they don't charge and they don't advertise.
While searching for new social networks, I came across an app called Groopie. I'm still trying to figure out how to use it but you can record videos with your friends. You ping them to record. After they are done recording, their footage will get uploaded to your phone in seconds, then you can edit and blend the two to create one video. Seems like they are on to something!