Social networks

[alan]

I'm a total nobby no-mates over at ello.co so if you'd like an invite just check my sig' below

PS: Posted because I grew up watching BBC TV not ITV and so when I began to see commercial television I found it particularly painful to have adverts inserted where TV programs always went when I was solely watching the BBC. Fast forward a few decades and now I find it equally painful to be browsing Facebook only to be kicked in the eye by an advert. Add to that the UI/UX disaster that is the Facebook experience and I am left detesting it but not having much in the way of an alternative.

Enter ello.co.

OK, I am being a bit optimistic, it's more than somewhat early days over at ello.co but it has the same sort of ethos as app.net, not going to spray me in adverts and also its got a rather lovely UX.

OK, rantette over, hope to see you there and hope in the long term ello takes off enough so I can delete my Facebook login.

Cheers, -Alan https://ello.co/alanfluff

[diogo]

Twitter and PW are as social as I can get in the net, but looks interesting

[dazzyweb]

OK, rantette over, hope to see you there and hope in the long term ello takes off enough so I can delete my Facebook login.

I stayed off facebook for 3 years until I had to submit to it again as many people I know would only communicate through facebook. Even though I did close my facebook acount I discovered that it never actually got deleted. It appears that facebook never actually delete your account but just mark it as sleeping. If you want to awake into the facebook world again it is just a matter of signing back in and the account is reactivated. 

[alan]

I find that [FB do not close] easy to believe @dazzyweb :/

[owzim]

"Ello, goodbye": https://aralbalkan.com/notes/ello-goodbye/

I despise Facebook and only use it every now and then when a friends groups discussion makes it necessary.

I almost exclusively use Twitter, but not too much for networking but for news on politics, webdev, web/tech in general and to share links or the occasional rant.

[LostKobrakai]

It appears that facebook never actually delete your account but just mark it as sleeping. If you want to awake into the facebook world again it is just a matter of signing back in and the account is reactivated. 

By now Facebook doesn't even claim to do otherwise. It's clearly stated that the account only gets deactivated. But somewhere hidden in the settings there's a way to queue your account for an actual deletion.

[Joss]

Yes you can delete your account, but it is hard work, or it used to be. You had to manually delete all posts and stuff first. I think they were forced to make it easier at some point. 

[alan]

@owzim glad to have seen that article about ello.co funding, thanks for the find.

While that article (that as far as I can see essentially says ello has VC backing QED the author won't use it) is clearly one way one could feel, my main influences come from my lucky/unlucky chance membership of a management team that did a management buyout (backed by a bank and a VC) and from just my general assumptions. I am comfortable that the outcome of a VC investing will be an exit strategy because a future exit does not predetermine who will be exiting or whether current or new owners actions will be good or bad. An exit does not by definition mean a business will necessarily be sold away from the original owners to bad people or that the current owners will begin to do bad things just because a VC is currently part of the business. Sometimes the owners pay off the investors and buy themselves out. Other times there is a sale but it's a partial sale to other people who invest out of interest and enthusiasm. Other times a strategy might indeed involve 'evil' data-selling strategies etc.

My hope is that the ello.co people retain the motivation that got them here, a comprehensive dislike of the bad points of Facebook (apologies for second guessing their motives and assuming these are they, but that's my best guess from what I've read).

I do get the point of the article however that a decentralized, not owned by anyone other than you, approach might be best. But my problem with that is that I expect ello.co to have a very, very hard climb making itself even 10% as popular as Facebook, I think anything less 'focussed' or easy to use or needing of tech/geek knowledge is even less likely to get widespread adoption. And I want to use a social network with widespread adoption so my utterly tech-clueless bother can use it as easily as anyone else can.

So for me I am looking at a glass half full when I look at ello.co (that is I am choosing with, I think, some justification, to be optimistic):

• yes it may currently be surviving via VC cash
• but they have a clear aim of creating an open and sustainable income soon: "Very soon we will begin offering special features to our users. If we create a special feature that you like, you can choose to pay a very small amount of money to add it to your Ello account forever."
• I love the UX/UI of ello
• I am liking everything they say about themselves, so far.

I may be proved naive but I am banking on ello.co not doing the bad stuff that I (and clearly lots of others too) feel the likes of Facebook have done/do.

Here's hoping my glass stays half full!

[Joss]

I certainly have no trouble with dealing with a company backed by private money - whether that is by a VC or private equity investment.

The real issue is WHO is running the company and what their brand values are. Currently, Ello's values are about no advertising in your face and a more simplistic way of interacting. If that works as a business model, then that will be fine. If not, then it is a shame, but it will be an important lesson.

The advantage of a VC is that they are looking for a bottom line - they are only interested in how you are running your business, what your ethics are and so on if you are not making profits. If you are chucking profits at you, then they are as happy as anything and will be able to line up a whole raft of buyers to choose from if that is the way to go. 

And that applies to any other sort of investment. Crowdfunding is not the answer in that respect - if the thousands of people that back your venture suddenly think their investment is going down the drain, they are going to complain and start pressurising you to run you business better and more profitibly.