Goodbye, Ello: Updates
One thing is clear about social media: Mainstream social networks have consistently failed to support diverse and marginalized users. Online harassment and abuse is rampant while platforms flatly refuse to implement effective reporting or filtering systems. Oppressive “real name” requirements, whorephobic policies, and “features” that compromise user consent, privacy and security are just a few of the common patterns on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. Meanwhile,up-and-coming social networks like Ello show no sign of improvement on the dominant design — VC-funded, led by privileged technologists, and out of touch with the needs of diverse communities.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
Any new platform entering the crowded world of social networks today has to offer us enough reasons to move away from the networks where we’ve already established our connections and history. Ello is currently winning attention by making itself out to be the anti-Facebook. As Aral Balkan pointed out in his piece “Ello, goodbye,” this new social network is funded by venture capital–so while it might be anti-advertising right now, there has to be some strategy for profit in the future. Rose Eveleth sums it up with “Ello Says You’re Not a Product, But You Are”–the value of any social network long-term is in its user base. Creatrix Tiara has further drawn attention to the risks of this space from a privacy standpoint, reminding us that there’s a lot more to safety and privacy on a social network than the absence of real names and an anti-advertising policy.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
Under the banner of free speech, companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been host to rape videos and revenge porn—which makes female users feel anything but free.
This comprehensive article about abuse of women online brings up Ello’s privacy problems (as an example of how unconscious biases can lead to poorly-planned system architecture) and links to my post detailing its issues (which seem to have been partially resolved).
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
Owdy is a groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting, next-level social network game changer built on the premise of synergistic user-centric arrogance. Owdy knows you don’t give a shit about what your friends post, so Owdy doesn’t let content get in the way of what truly makes for a good social experience: rushing to get your username before everybody else and re-defining who your friends are. Don’t have any friends? No problem - OWDY is the only social network that lets you friend yourself!
Ryan Jones, the creator of SEO parody blog WTFSEO, created a parody of Ello and it is a thing of beauty. Here is the “manifesto”:
Your social network is owned by an advertising pentavirate: the Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds, and Colonel Sanders.Every post you share, every friend you make, every link you follow, and every breath you take is tracked, recorded, and converted into data. This data is then analyzed, split apart, put back together, turned 5" to the right and sold to the highest bidder. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you re-targetted ads for the things you’ve already bought. You are the product that’s bought and sold.
We believe there is a better way, the OWDY way. We believe in autocracy audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity, synergy, and mild opaqueness. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership. Which is why we’ll never sell your data, instead we’ll simply give it to the advertisers for free, thus eliminating the lure of filthy lucre from rearing its ugly head into the equation.
We believe that you care more about defining your friends than reading what they have to share. We believe that statuses, likes, and comments only get in the way of this superficial display of self importance. We believe you’ll request an invite just to secure your username in case we end up being the next big thing. We believe your friends will have accounts before you and it will drive you insane.
We believe a social network can be a tool for selling our startup at a tidy profit empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate - but a place to claim your username and re-define your friends.
You Are not a product**We reserve the right to replace this manifesto with one that says that advertising is a necessary evil should we reach a critical mass of users and realize that we can make tons of cash selling your data.
This is what you get when you request an invite (a Google doc that asks for your email address and Twitter username - so potentially a spam harvester, but in this case I was amused enough to give it a shot):
“Owdy y'all,
Thanks for opting in to the Owdy spam email list, We promise to only share your email with those advertisers that meet the stringent Owdy values of helping us retire by xmas.Oh, and look for your Owdy login details in another email in your spam / junk folder at some point in the future after we sell this site to Facebook, Google or Microsoft.”
Love it.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
So Ello finally replied to my email about brands following me and how that breaks their anti-ad promises:
Hi Tiara,
Sorry for the slow reply. We had a giant increase in users recently, and we’re real humans working hard to get back to everyone.
Thank you for raising this concern. Ello is ad-free and anyone can join Ello, as long as they follow the rules. When we started hearing from users about their concern for personal privacy and safety, we expedited the development of blocking features.
We recently added BLOCKING, which makes you invisible to another Ello user, and MUTING, which hides a user from you. Totally private accounts, where a user chooses exactly who they allow to follow them, will be released later this fall.
Thank you again for reaching out to us. Please keep the feedback coming so that we can make Ello a better community for all.
:)
Best,
Anna Q
Ello
Simple, Beautiful & Ad-FreeHm. It doesn’t answer my actual question - how can they claim to be ad-free when companies can already follow you - but they did say there was a Blocking option.
I went to check it out - here’s how you do it:
- Go to the profile you want to block (Sorry Netflix, I swear I have nothing against you guys!)
- Find the [Ø] button next to Friends|Noise on the right hand side of the profile header
- Click on it: you will get a BRIGHT RED bar asking you if you want to Mute (they can still follow you but you won’t get any emails or updates) or Block (they can’t follow you)
It seems to still be a little buggy, though: when I clicked on Block, it halted for a couple of seconds before sending me back to Netflix’s Ello page, with no indication that I’d blocked it (unlike Twitter’s Blocked button and Facebook making the profile inaccessible). When I clicked on the button again I get the same two options, but no indication that I had pressed any of them.
I emailed Ello again to see if they’ll fix it. Let’s see how long it takes for them to reply.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
They replied (pretty quickly) telling me what is meant to happen (the [Ø] button is meant to turn red); I just tested it and it works as planned.
Thanks, Ello. Sorry, Netflix.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
So Ello finally replied to my email about brands following me and how that breaks their anti-ad promises:
Hi Tiara,
Sorry for the slow reply. We had a giant increase in users recently, and we’re real humans working hard to get back to everyone.
Thank you for raising this concern. Ello is ad-free and anyone can join Ello, as long as they follow the rules. When we started hearing from users about their concern for personal privacy and safety, we expedited the development of blocking features.
We recently added BLOCKING, which makes you invisible to another Ello user, and MUTING, which hides a user from you. Totally private accounts, where a user chooses exactly who they allow to follow them, will be released later this fall.
Thank you again for reaching out to us. Please keep the feedback coming so that we can make Ello a better community for all.
:)
Best,
Anna Q
Ello
Simple, Beautiful & Ad-Free
Hm. It doesn’t answer my actual question - how can they claim to be ad-free when companies can already follow you - but they did say there was a Blocking option.
I went to check it out - here’s how you do it:
- Go to the profile you want to block (Sorry Netflix, I swear I have nothing against you guys!)
- Find the [Ø] button next to Friends|Noise on the right hand side of the profile header
- Click on it: you will get a BRIGHT RED bar asking you if you want to Mute (they can still follow you but you won’t get any emails or updates) or Block (they can’t follow you)
It seems to still be a little buggy, though: when I clicked on Block, it halted for a couple of seconds before sending me back to Netflix’s Ello page, with no indication that I’d blocked it (unlike Twitter’s Blocked button and Facebook making the profile inaccessible). When I clicked on the button again I get the same two options, but no indication that I had pressed any of them.
I emailed Ello again to see if they’ll fix it. Let’s see how long it takes for them to reply.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
Ello won’t sell your data to advertisers: they’ll just let them make profiles and follow you for free.
And, since they still don’t have privacy, filtering, or blocking options yet (and might indeed charge you for them), there’s nothing you can do about it.
I emailed Ello about it 3 days ago and have yet to hear from them in any capacity. (I have not been contacted by them directly ever since my initial post, only posts that went to all the users.)
Worth noting that Budnitz Bicycles is owned by one of Ello’s founders, Paul Budnitz.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
Update: it’s been 8 days and I still have not heard from Ello about their lack of privacy from advertisers - their sole selling point.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox apologizing for their Real Name policy.
I highlighted this part in particular because of the alarming revelation: this was a systematic, targeted, and deliberate attack conducted by someone with a vendetta/agenda. We don’t know who it is yet, but GigaOm’s in the process of finding out.
(via notyourexrotic)
This isn’t about Ello specifically, but given that the Real Name policy was one of the biggest drives towards Ello’s popularity, I thought it was apt.
Does Ello have a policy on systematic harassment through fake abuse reports? Do they have the manpower to actually handle abuse reports effectively? They say they will have zero-tolerance on harassment and abuse - but what if someone pulls something like this and they bow down to the abusers instead?
I’ve had posts on Tumblr taken down by Tumblr staff because I called someone out on harassment and they claimed that I was harassing them. This has happened before on Facebook and Twitter, and at least those two places have more of a system in place (even though they’re somewhat broken). Does Ello have any system?
The situation with their Facemaker app and impostors, as well as the fact that they’ve still yet to get back to me about companies following me on Ello despite their no-ads policy, does not give me any confidence.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
The thing that really disturbs me about all these critiques is not the critiques themselves. The thing that disturbs me the most is the fact that if Ello is the anti-Facebook, we’ve already lost. Hear me out for a second.
I have a strong suspicion that Ello rushed this beta release on getting wind of the Facebook “fake name” purge, in large part because the product feels so unfinished. It was an excellent opening gambit, considering the fact that any straw could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to user patience with Facebook. By hawking their product with a “manifesto” (could you not, by the way?), they are tapping into a deep-seated dissatisfaction with the status quo. But they’re asking us to choose between one set of problematic features and another.
With Ello positioned as the anti-Facebook, a door closes. Our imaginations are bound to the platform choices we’ve been presented with. We are locked into a politics of scarcity that is very unfamiliar to me on the internet. As I was remarking to a friend yesterday, the thing I’ve always loved about the internet was its anarchistic abundance, its sense of possibility. The thing that disturbs me the most deeply about positioning Ello versus Facebook is the way that abundance is foreclosed on.
This might be a tall order. But I think it’s one worth considering. Alternative funding models, alternative ways of managing stacks and databases, alternative organizational management structures need to be talked about. Is it crotchety and wrong to say I want some of the spirit of the old weird internet in my radical social network?
Cayden, Body & Soul - Facebook vs Ello & the Politics of Scarcity
Another reminder to check out CollectQT, a social network project run by and for queer and trans people, currently in development.
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.
So everyone wants to get on Ello. It’s this new social networking site that is made to look real slick: grey on grey, monospace font, circular user profile imag
Original post on Ello’s privacy problems and further updates.