North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

I reverse my position on Ello; it is very good like the early Internet was,
spartan but what needs to work well, does.
It will never offer competition for this list or NAFEX's web forum but if
it adds networking for people with common interests like Reddit does,
that will be a very good thing. I have signed up for an account and hope to
make good use of it; will see how it develops. Thanks to Meikal for the
Ello news and invite.
ecoponderosa
https://ello.co/ecoponderosa

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 8:37 AM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 4:50 PM, Andre Pierre <hello@protocol6.com> wrote:
>
>> Sites like Facebook and Google are not *just* convenient tools. They are
>> big corporations that often (usually?) have questionable patterns of
>> behavior.
>> To use them, and to actively encourage others to use them, is to endorse
>> such behaviors, or at best to turn a blind eye to them.
>>
>> For Facebook the list is pretty extensive and in my view damning:
>> https://stallman.org/facebook.html.
>>
>
More on that:
LocalOrg
http://localorg.blogspot.com/
*September 26, 2014* (Tony Cartalucci - LocalOrg) - Ello, a social network
alternative to Facebook is expanding its user base immensely, even as it
remains in beta testing. Market watchers and tech trend analysts attribute
the influx of users indicative of Facebook's waning popularity due to its
invasive, profit-driven, monopolistic, and downright creepy conduct.

Facebook's incremental, manipulative policy and terms of use have been
described as everything from a greedy business practice, to a government
sanctioned means of mass manipulation and soft censorship
<http://localorg.blogspot.com/2014/09/facebooks-soft-censorship.html>.

It was inevitable that start-ups and activists would seek to offer Facebook
users an alternative that allowed social media to be used as a tool of
empowerment, not insidious manipulation and censorship. Ello appears to be
tapping into that with its manifesto <https://ello.co/wtf/post/about> which
states:

*Your social network is owned by advertisers.*

 *Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is
tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so
they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.*

 *We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in
beauty, simplicity and transparency. We believe that the people who make
things and the people who use them should be in partnership.*

 *We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to
deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and
celebrate life.*
*You are not a product.*

In theory, not only does Ello's manifesto sound ideal, it is likely to
attract a multitude of disillusioned Facebook users fed up with the
big-tech's monopoly, but who have stayed aboard for a lack of a better
alternative.

Market Watch in an article titled, "Facebook killer called Ello gets the
timing righ
<http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-killer-called-ello-gets-the-timing-right-2014-09-25>t,"
reported:

*There has been a lot of chatter on social media this week about a new
social network called Ello, which is getting buzz for its anti-Facebook
Inc. stance. But is the start-up, which accepts no advertising and does no
data mining, ready for prime time?*

 *Ello has apparently been gaining such a huge influx of new users that its
servers were having problems in the past two days, despite the requirement
that you need an invitation to join.*

Market Watch notes that Ello's popularity is due more to Facebook's
shortcomings than Ello's superior performance - Ello which is admittedly
still in beta testing and with features still being incrementally added.

*Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire? *
Migrating from Facebook to an alternative social network is tempting, but
careful research must be done to ensure that these alternatives are true in
their purpose and not simply the next "Facebook" repainted and refitted to
be even more invasive and insidious. The appearance of Ello and its
astonishingly expanding user base does illustrate one important point - no
matter how many "Facebooks" the establishment tries to create, there will
be a demand for legitimate and transparent alternatives that serve users
rather than manipulate and constrain them.

Whatever Ello ends up becoming, activists across the tech community should
be ever vigilant, scrutinizing these networks for abuse, and prepared to
meet demands if and when alternatives like Ello fail in their mission
statements.

Demanding privacy, transparency, and honesty from corporations like
Facebook and the special interests they represent is like demanding decency
from a common criminal - futile. Instead, measures must be taken,
independent of the criminal or criminal enterprise's actions, that will
protect individuals and society from their malevolence.

Creating a multitude of alternatives and taking ownership over the
technology and infrastructure our society depends on by creating local,
independent alternatives
<http://localorg.blogspot.com/2012/12/decentralizing-telecom.html> whittles
away at not only the insidious means the establishment wields against us,
but undermines the vast resources the establishment has access to in order
to create such means in the first place.

*Follow LandDestroyer on Twitter @LandDestroyer
<https://twitter.com/LandDestroyer> or LocalOrg at @LocalOrgInfo.
<https://twitter.com/localorginfo>*

-- 
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
http://www.avantgeared.com
https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
https://ello.co/ecoponderosa