Andy Baio on the quiet death of ello.

Ello launched on August 7, 2014 with big dreams and big promises, a new social network defined by what it wouldn't do.

From its launch, Ello defined itself as an alternative to ad-driven social networks like Twitter and Facebook. "You are not a product." (The "I Disagree" button linked to Facebook's privacy page.)

I'd link to that manifesto on Ello's site, but I can't, because Ello is dead.

In June 2023, the servers just started returning errors, making nine years of member contributions inaccessible, apparently forever — every post, artwork, song, portfolio, and the community built there was gone in an instant.

Remember them? I think a few fellow bloggers created accounts there. Can it really be almost ten years ago? I used it for a bit and remember thinking it was pretty cool. The minimalism of the site along with the monospaced font ticked boxes I didn't realize I had.

Their insistence that you are not the product was refreshing in light of the things Facebook were doing in 2014. It was great for photographers as photos displayed at almost full screen. For a while it was great.

Over time I guess the novelty of something new wore off and I gradually stopped posting. And then I must have forgot ello even existed. It sounds like it continued in various forms until imploding, taking all the user content with it, last year.

A cautionary tale about having all your eggs in one basket under someone else's control. No matter how fun and shiny a new thing is, you're at the mercy of someone else be it VCs or wacko billionaires. And one more reason to support the indieweb and publishing things yourself.