The internet’s been loud about this new social network called Ello. At this point it’s invitation only, so I didn’t have high hopes of (ever) getting in when I signed up, but then I got invited by a tweetmate.

Social networks are made out of people (obviously), and mine has no one so far, making it kind of pointless. I’m having the same issue with twister too at the moment, by the way – and Google+ has been like that for years.

I don’t know what it’s general appeal is supposed to be, or why the internet is so head over heels in love with it. The design is the kind of ultra-minimalistic thing that is rather the lack of one. I used to make templates like that for the blog when I was bored but out of ideas. There are also no privacy options whatsoever and all profiles are public, which is quite amusing actually. That means no secrecy for any of the people who’d only want to share certain bits of their lives with certain others.

I kinda feel sorry for the “naive devs”, since not only are they putting such an effort into playing the naive while the process of getting venture capital doesn’t really allow for any naivete, and pushing a “manifesto” that god only knows how serious they are about, and yet the internet’s responses aren’t all so positive. Quite a few articles bash Ello quite harshly too.

Funniest of all is that its manual invites don’t even work. Pasting the invitation code on the join page doesn’t work. You either send the people you want to invite an email, or they’re not getting in.

I’m looking forward to what it’s gonna turn out like, and I’ll be there to see too.