Ello is a social networking site designed by people who got frustrated with the worst aspects of what's out there.
Especially all the ads.
Or consider this scenario: you have 500 people who like you facebook page, but when you post, only 5 people are exposed to your content.
You're expected to pay to "boost" your readership.
With Ello, the idea is, that if you post to your "friends" stream, your friends will have the chance to see it.
It's kinda like Tumblr that way.
It's also non-mutual, unlike facebook. With facebook, if you friend someone, you receive each other's posts.
With Ello, if you follow someone, they don't necessarily follow you.
Ello is in Beta version, so standard features are missing. For instance, I don't see any way to use an RSS feed to pipe your Ello posts into facebook. Their FAQ says they will be rolling out new features in the months to come.
Cut them some slack, they only started up this summer.
I'm not keen on the layout, but it's not horrible either. It's not very intuitive. You have to do a lot of clicking to figure things out.
The search feature on this site is the pits. If you want to find something, like a keyword in a post, you need to use Google and a hack from this guide.
Go to Google. Copy and paste this line. Replace the word "keyword" with another search word.
site:ello.co keyword -inurl:post
The downside, if you can call it that, is that everything is public, unless you mark a post private.
One of the advantages of facebook, I find, is that you can create your own safe space of friends and allies to share your favourite things.
Another important detail is that Ello is invite-only for the time being, because they don't want too many people signing up at the same time.
But if you need an invite, you can go here for a code. This is how I signed up.
And if you want to follow me, here I am.
UPDATE:
An important detail.
According to this guide, there is no built-in "sharing" feature of posts. You have to get the URL of the timestamp of the post, then paste it in the "Omnibar" (that's the textbox where you post stuff).
Wow, they have a long way to go.
I feel like it's 2004 here. :)
Also:
You can copy paste pictures, but make sure you give attribution!
