Unlikely. Facebook isn’t going anywhere, because most everyone you know is on it. What makes all the hipsters want to flee it, is exactly why you need to stay on it: Visibility. For now, at least. But because many people are sick of all the ads and object to being told stage names are not allowed on Facebook, nor any other type of pseudonym (drag queens simply make easy targets), many artists, performers, and activists are staking their claim in a new territory, a new social network that welcomes “secret identities” and promises not to advertise or sell your information: Ello.
It’s clean. It’s hip. It’s interface is simple. It takes the best of Facebook, the best of Twitter, and combines them with the Tumblr-ish-ness of gif support, even for your banner picture, which can be scrolled elegantly up or down like a roller window shade. Also hipper: Round profile pics. As an homage to the new look of social media I have been posting only round pictures to my ello page and crafting only round memes to share. (Follow me REMOVED AT HER REQUEST)
So is Ello the savior of our privacy? Probably not. But does it give people a chance to break the monopolistic triumvirate of Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr? Yes. Competition is excellent for innovation, and Pirates despise monopoly.
Part of its current appeal may also be that it is invite only for now, and if you’ve requested an invite directly from Ello, you are probably still waiting. You have to *know* someone who is already in and willing to part with one of their 5 precious invitations for you. How precious? There’s a report of Ello invitations selling on Ebay.
So we have struck our claim in this new territory, and if you have too, or do so in the future, we invite you to follow us there.
Shake things up, make Zuckerberg and the rest *work* for it (always) and join us on this new, hip, and for now fairly quiet frontier known as Ello.
Cheers, mate!
Lucia Fiero is currently the MPP First Officer, and consistent Social Media enthusiast. Follow her on Twitter.
Unlikely. Facebook isn’t going anywhere, because most everyone you know is on it. What makes all the hipsters want to flee it, is exactly why you need to stay on it: Visibility. For now, at least. But because many people are sick of all the ads and object to being told stage names are not allowed on Facebook, nor any other type of pseudonym (drag queens simply make easy targets), many artists, performers, and activists are staking their claim in a new territory, a new social network that welcomes “secret identities” and promises not to advertise or sell your information: Ello.
It’s clean. It’s hip. It’s interface is simple. It takes the best of Facebook, the best of Twitter, and combines them with the Tumblr-ish-ness of gif support, even for your banner picture, which can be scrolled elegantly up or down like a roller window shade. Also hipper: Round profile pics. As an homage to the new look of social media I have been posting only round pictures to my ello page and crafting only round memes to share. (Follow me REMOVED AT HER REQUEST)
So is Ello the savior of our privacy? Probably not. But does it give people a chance to break the monopolistic triumvirate of Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr? Yes. Competition is excellent for innovation, and Pirates despise monopoly.
Part of its current appeal may also be that it is invite only for now, and if you’ve requested an invite directly from Ello, you are probably still waiting. You have to *know* someone who is already in and willing to part with one of their 5 precious invitations for you. How precious? There’s a report of Ello invitations selling on Ebay.
So we have struck our claim in this new territory, and if you have too, or do so in the future, we invite you to follow us there.
Shake things up, make Zuckerberg and the rest *work* for it (always) and join us on this new, hip, and for now fairly quiet frontier known as Ello.
Cheers, mate!
Lucia Fiero is currently the MPP First Officer, and consistent Social Media enthusiast. Follow her on Twitter.