Unfortunately, the Ello ecosystem seems more or less resist any non-artsy content like an immune system warding off a plague. They've quite thoroughly positioned themselves as an alternative to Tumblr photoblogs, and little else. The recommendations and suggested users are all weighted towards hipstery, partly because the algorithms all seem to be seeded off connections to the founders, themselves artists.<p>The end result is that everyone not interested in posting art photos inevitably seems to get bored and wander away.
Somebody should write an open protocol for social applications. Then convince the governments to enforce companies to use that open protocol (like it is already the case for telephony, for example).<p>I think for the European government, this would not be impossible to achieve.
Those ads will be removed very quickly. The publicity is not from the ads but from the articles about the ads. And the snake continues to eat its own tail...
Me, and a lot of my friends, really <i>tried</i> to use ello, but the interface is so confusing that we really couldn't figure it out (not for lack of trying!).<p>Reading their about page just stinks of pretentiousness, as well, which kindof leaves a negative taste.<p><a href="https://ello.co/wtf/about/what-is-ello/" rel="nofollow">https://ello.co/wtf/about/what-is-ello/</a>
As an avid user of Twitter, all I can say is that Ello has captured my attention to the point that I'm spending more time there these days (@teanee). Twitter is still best for in-the-moment news, tracking bugs or product updates, quirky random asides, and even finding other Elloers. Brevity is the sweet spot for Twitter. However, privacy and ad tracking (including Twitter's rush down the Facebook algo path) have made me look at Ello as a bit of an oasis. I like the company's principles and take on what a social platform should be. So yeah, I'm loving it on Ello - especially with an app now.