Anti-Facebook Ello: Here's why we're still in beta. SPAMGASM!

Humblebrag site Ello, which has positioned itself as a worthy Web2.0rhea antiserum to the ad-poisoned Facebook, has come under attack from spammers. Just days earlier, the social network was temporarily forced to wave goodbye to its users late on Sunday night, after it claimed to have suffered an apparent distributed denial-of …

[BigAndos]

I see they are planning to make money by charging users for access to "features". Why would I want a social network where only some of my friends can use some of the features I have? Sounds like it will get plagued by chicken and egg situations e.g. "why should i bother paying for the feature to do x when none of my friends have it?"

If you really want a private, ad free but sustainable social network then good old email (not gmail obviously) seems the best way to go!

[Anonymous Coward]

LinkedIn does this, does it not?

[Khaptain]

LinkedIn : You have to pay to access the "Professional" features.. I get nice little email reminders from time to time....

LinkedIn do have a revenue stream though, employers...

[BigAndos]

True, LinkedIn does charge you for some features but they are primarily aimed at employers or recruiters and really targeted on making it easier for you to search for and sell to/recruit people. I can't see Ello offering that kind of business focused service.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Internet would be a lot different if every good idea in the old days was made proprietary and intended for serving adverts.

Some sort of open alternative to social media would be nice. A social media protocol.

[Graham 24]

They may be hoping that the reverse is true:

"All the rest of my social group have paid for super-shiny-whizzy feature X, so I'd better pay as well, or I'll get left out"

The tricky thing with all these things is getting going. I take your point about chicken and egg, but the same could be said of the first telephone / fax machine etc.

[JTUK]

It's been tried before. Friends Re-united used the pay for features model. It failed, Facebook ate it's lunch. Even after it made it free to be in par, it still failed, because the site was run down through a lack of expansion / investment.

Jason.

[Pen-y-gors]

Limit the followers?

Block button is an obvious start, but perhaps the alternative is to limit the number/rate of 'following's

- if it's a site for real people, then limiting the number of new follows to 10 or 20 a day would help to put the spammers off, ditto having a maximum of say 200 (or 300 or whatever) followees (after all, who really has more than that number of real/worthwhile friends, relations and genuine social contacts ?)

[Anonymous Coward]

Pfft

"Ello" is a load of twaddle. If you want some *REAL* anti-Facebook action, support the likes of Diaspora (https://joindiaspora.com/). Hell, run your own instance if you want.

[Simon Harris]

Re: Pfft

Wouldn't a *REAL* anti-Facebook action be to go down to the pub and chat with your mates?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pfft

no no no, you don't get it - there is NO life but the internet.

p.s. Real out of the box alternative to facebook would be to hang oneself ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pfft

Social Media does have uses. You may not all be on the same land mass for starters.

The thing is that people do not value their privacy so rather than DIY or paying someone, the whore themselves out to the likes of Facebook and then get reamed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pfft

That would be a little on the difficult side when a handful of my friends are anywhere from 200- 700 miles away.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pfft

Diaspora needs a better name, something that doesn't immediately make people think of diarrhea.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

It will be very hard to promote any paid-for service now users are so used to have their social network for "free" (free as in beer, not free as in not-having-everything-you do-or-click-on-analysed-and-sold). Any "free" item will have to be paid for either from ad income or from selling analytic results, or both.

[Anonymous Coward]

there's no bad publicity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29409541

even though the good old auntie's "technology" experts didn't say a word on the issue of "funding".

[Mage]

Joining

Shirley,

It seems to be invite only, but based on sample profiles made public, I'd decline if offered.

I'll stick to email and for more instant communications use the #2 Social Media's Messaging client.

QQ International from Tencent

You can create private groups on it

Do Video broadcast

and more.

If you live in west which is least bad reading your private stuff?

NSA

Google and Marketing Associates

Twitter and Marketing Associates

Facebook and Marketing Associates

Or Chinese Security?

[MAPINGUARI]

Re: Joining

Chinese security. Renowned for protecting private data.

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory Groucho Marx quote

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."

[Anonymous Coward]

Getting rid of spammers should be easy for them

In order to get in, you have to be invited by someone else. If you invite more than one or two (in case friend's accounts get hacked) spammers, your invite could be suspended. If you invite like a half dozen or more spammers, not only do you get suspended but everyone you invited (and those they invited, and so on) would get suspended.

That sort of policy would make it pretty difficult for spammers get a foothold.

You could make yourself more resist to "accidentally" suspension by having others "stand up" for you as a real non-spamming person. i.e. reputation based, so the higher your reputation the higher the bar for your account getting suspended for inviting spammers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Getting rid of spammers should be easy for them

Fine - until all the spammers start giving each other reputation points.

[Amorous Cowherder]

FriendFace! FriendFace! FriendFace!

Did no one learn from Google+?

1. Once people have entrenched themselves in a set up with all their mates, the whole party has to move else no one will.

Or...

2. Wait for the next "generation" to decide against established social network and pick a new one.

Or...

3. You couldn't careless about any of this social networking bollocks and simply want a bloody good laugh at all the muppets and their so called online "friends"!

[Matt Piechota]

Re: FriendFace! FriendFace! FriendFace!

"1. Once people have entrenched themselves in a set up with all their mates, the whole party has to move else no one will.

Or...

2. Wait for the next "generation" to decide against established social network and pick a new one.

Or...

3. You couldn't careless about any of this social networking bollocks and simply want a bloody good laugh at all the muppets and their so called online "friends"!"

I see quite a bit of Facebook-fatigue, but that's more with FB playing games with what comes up on your feed than the ads. The Ads aren't very noticeable if you're competent at using a browser (as in installing adblock) so I don't think most people care. I see a lot of people abandoning it for twitter since it's a lot more low-key.

As for #3, I've been out with my friends way more since FB than before, it's a lot easier to coordinate than via phone or text. Maybe if all your friends go to the same pub every night it's easier to skip it.

[PCComf]

An ounce of prevention...

They need to vet their signups in some way. I gave them my email address a while back, but haven't heard anything. Yet somehow thousands of spam accounts have managed to get access? This service may want to provide an alternative to Facebook/twitter/etc, but at least until they come out of this beta state (sounds more like alpha) they could start out requiring users to validate themselves against other sites' authentication mechanisms to at least slightly increase the barrier to entry for spam accounts.

[Mukaking]

I am getting sick of hearing about Ello

I wrote a more detailed review breakdown here: https://mukaking.com/RateTopic.aspx?Topic=Ello

I just dont get the hype.

[TwistUrCapBack]

Re: I am getting sick of hearing about Ello

How is that more detailed ??

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Killer feature

The Fuck off and Die button

I'd sign up just to use that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Killer feature

Especially if it worked as per the label.

[josh_wieder]

Motive? Whodunnit?

Who would DDoS ello, and why? Was this someone whose account got cancelled and decided to retaliate? I would be interested in more information about who is behind this (if for no other reason that I am patiently awaiting my own ello account and frustrated by this moron or group of morons causing a delay).

[NogginTheNog]

Re: Motive? Whodunnit?

Zuckerberg?