Ello! Ello! (Ain't no free lunch)

So the masses are cheesed off at Facebook and threatening a mass exodus...again. Remember when everyone was going to leave and use Google +? Yeah...didn't work out as planned. Twitter may have gained a few more users...but remember kids, Machete don't Tweet...and neither will I.

The list of complaints is long and varied. Facebook really has screwed up in a number of ways...but, it's free to the user, so who are we to bitch? Sure...we have ads to ignore. All of our posts might not reach all of our friends...who, chances are, were ignoring them in the first place. Facebook wants bands and other business to pay to promote or boost posts. (From what I've witnessed, that hasn't really worked well either) Now Facebook wants to insist on people using their REAL names! GASP! SHOCK! HORROR! SHUDDER!

If you have to hide behind a fake persona...I have to wonder why. I've heard many reasonable claims as to why, many based on 'safety' issues. Well guess what kids...if EVERYONE is using their legal name, the so-called stalkers and cyber bullies will be using theirs too...and less likely to do stupid things. But...no one thinks about that. It's easier to whine.

Now, a new social networking site has appeared out of nowhere: Ello! And...they claim to be FREE and AD FREE! They claim to be pro user and anti-corporation. These claims will attract a lot of people.

Everything you wanted to hear!

Sounds too good to be true. Like all things that sound too good to be true, it's because it is. Unless someone has found a way to invest the Hughs fortune to maintain the site, some has to pay for it.

Ello, on their own site, claim "Ello is a simple, beautiful, and ad-free social network created by a small group of artists and designers.

We originally built Ello as a private social network. Over time, so many people wanted to join Ello that we built a public version of Ello for everyone to use.

Ello doesn't sell ads. Nor do we sell data about you to third parties.

Virtually every other social network is run by advertisers. Behind the scenes they employ armies of ad salesmen and data miners to record every move you make. Data about you is then auctioned off to advertisers and data brokers. You're the product that's being bought and sold.

Collecting and selling your personal data, reading your posts to your friends, and mapping your social connections for profit is both creepy and unethical. Under the guise of offering a "free" service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy.

We also think ads are tacky, that they insult our intelligence and that we're better without them."

Wow. Just wow. These folks are gooooood! They know just how to reel you in, don't they. They're telling you everything YOU want to hear! It's FREE! You're SPECIAL! You're SMARTER for using their product! 

(source: https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello)

But wait...there's more. While Ello repeatedly states "Ello is completely free to use.", there's a catch. They're going to ask YOU, the user, to pay for it. How? Simple. Some of their features will be 'pay to play', so to speak. Don't believe me? It says so right on their site!

"We occasionally offer special features to our users. If we create a special feature that you really like, you may choose to support Ello by paying a very small amount of money to add that feature to your Ello account.

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."

Now wait just a doggone minute. It's free...but they suggest we might want to give them money? Which is it? Is it free or pay as you go? Suggested donation? They haven't even bothered to show prices, and anyone with a measurable IQ knows that is always a red flag.

So let's look at the features they currently have on their free beta version:

Simple Commenting
@mention pre-population on user profiles
Improved error handling
Enhanced user Discovery
Fluid grid Noise view
Views per post
Drag users between Friends & Noise (still buggy)
Email notifications (Following/Invite Accepted/Mentions)
Invitation system & ability to invite Friends
Network-wide in-stream announcement system
Javascript refactor = One Page Application (OPA)
In-Stream notifications (Following/Invite Accepted)
In-line Emoji integration
View Followers & Following lists
Welcome post & brief tutorial
Re-order fields within Omnibar
WTF section (Help, About & Policies)
Post #, Follower # & Following #
@mentions (update: autocompleter now works!)
Arrow keys hide and reveal drawer & access full-screen publishing mode
Ability to make profile visible on Ello network only (on/off)
Image compression
Follow (Friends/Noise)
Unfollow (Friends/Noise)
Omnibar post text (basic)
Omnibar post text advanced (bold, italic, urls)
Omnibar post images
Omnibar post animated GIFs
Omnibar post Emoji
Omnibar delete posts
Omnibar edit posts
Time stamp displays post detail/permalink
Option to toggle Google Analytics on/off
Respect DNT browsers settings

Sounds pretty good, right? Really basic...but it'll get better, right? So, you'll be able to say HI to your friends...an that's about it. Some basic text and picture sharing, and of course, tagging. Might as well just text your friends are send emails.

Here's what they have coming soon...and these just might be what they'll ask YOU to pay for:

User blocking
Inappropriate content flagging
Audio integration (Soundcloud)
Private Accounts
Rich (multimedia) commenting
Mobile web refinements
Repost w/ author attribution
Notification Center
Online/offline user designation
Love + Love bookmarking stream
Emoji index
Video integration (Youtube, Vimeo, Instagram & Vine)
@@ Private Messaging
Auto-push posts to other networks
iOS & Android mobile apps

Want to do anything fun with it? Pay them. Want to block that asshole who keeps bugging you? Pay them. Want to share a video of your new favorite band? Pay them.  I can't say for a fact that's the case...but that's how it looks to me. All Ello has done is remove the middle man...the advertiser. Ello is coming straight for YOUR wallet. Without money coming in, the site will close. Without profit, these "seven well-known artists and programmers" (wait a minute...I thought they said they were artists and designers! Now they're programmers?) will have no motivation to keep up the site. They've seen the success of the old MySpace and Facebook, and have made note of the failures of each. They have researched the best way to sell YOU their product...without even proving that it works.

I was sent an invite (the beta phase is currently invite-only). When I went to set up my profile, I got this message:

"We will invite you as soon as we can. Ello is currently in beta, and we are inviting new users in small groups as we roll out new features.

In the meantime, please share our Manifesto — and help us spread the word."

WTF? I already received an invite! Sounds pretty buggy already. A couple of friends who managed to get on all stated they had problems with the site. Do I really want to switch one set of bugs and problems (that I can work through in seconds) for another? Time will tell, I guess...but I think that once people are asked to 'donate', over and over, it will get old quick. And this whole "share our Manifesto" biz...sure, it's a viral grass roots approach designed to make the user feel part of some subversive uprising...but in short, Ello is too cheap to advertise. Probably spending their meager start up funds on new and improved ways to ask for your money. Remember...nothing is free.

 Facebook just might be a more ruthless giant than we realize. I don't see it crumbling any time soon, with the possible exception of crumbling under its own weight. There are loads of smaller and/or lesser used social networking sites...but we all want to be connected to everyone! Right? Ask yourself this...why?