Ello, what's all this then? An ad-free social network

+1. It took me the longest time to figure out how to search for my friends, which is kind of the point of social networks.

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I have 25 invites Iā€™m able to give. Each invite is 1 bitcoin if you are interested.

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Whatever happened to chatrooms? I like live conversations and the opportunity to meet and mix it up with strangers. Can anyone reading this recommend some sites with live chatting or camming?

In the spirit of promoting community, of course.

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Probably is using Diaspora* codeā€¦

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Either itā€™ll go strong for a few weeks and then everyone will desert it for the next thing, like every other nascent FB alternative, or it will take off and then it will turn to shit like everything else that takes off (there will be ads, they will spam you with sponsored posts, your parents will find you). It will disappoint you one way or another.

But we can have fun with it for now.

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Heā€™s perfectly free to make the offer; but unless itā€™s a joke, Iā€™m just surprised that the negotiation would start there. Prices have fallen a bit; but 1BTC is still slightly north of $400.

An invite for some random new site, without substantial backing, that will likely either open or die within months, $400? That seems at least a factor of ten, possibly two factors of ten, too high.

Sure, Iā€™m game. Give me 1 bitcoin and Iā€™ll take an invite off you.

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Any more invites floating around?

Ok! Got my invites to hand out. 3 left, reply, and Iā€™ll keep it going. (You can edit your post to remove your email after, thatā€™s what I did with Chris.)
Bethany

eta: 3 invites used.

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One of Elloā€™s early (free advice) advisers isnā€™t happy already about the direction things have taken. Aral Balkan wrote this.

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Iā€™d like one, if youā€™ve still got 'em. [redacted] at gmail. Thanks!

ā€œVirtually every other social network is run by and for advertisers.ā€
ā€“ https://ello.co/wtf/post/why-no-ads

Ello disregard past efforts to offer non-commercial, user-centric social networks. They donā€™t even acknowledge the existence of their predecessors (not even Diaspora that hit the maintstream news). It also look like another centralized network while people have been working for years on decentralized social networks (eg. http://pump.io/). They either donā€™t known social networks very well and have done sloppy researches, or are lying to appears more innovative than they are. In both cases, this does not look good for their users.

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It was a joke but itā€™s a crazy world of supply and demand - new users arenā€™t given invite codes right away and some people apparently have bitcoins to spend. Thought it best to keep the transaction at a 1:1 level. :slight_smile: 2 sold, theyā€™re going fast people!

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I honestly donā€™t see how this can survive with no ads. That ā€œpremium featureā€ set they are planning on offering had better be damn compelling to get people to stay on.

Two soldā€¦ Damnā€¦ Iā€™ll never understand startup valuation. Thereā€™s a reason I keep my investments out of the sector entirely.

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Iā€™ll take one ā€“ THANKS!

No worries. Iā€™m still joking.

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So the only thing I know about it is that it wonā€™t last. I think Iā€™ll pass.

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Alrighty, thatā€™s my 3. :slight_smile: