March is NSFW month on Ello

So, today I get this email from Ello announcing that March is NSFW month…

March is NSFW Month on Ello

Following Google’s decision to ban NSFW content from Blogger (followed by an awkward reversal), we decided to celebrate freedom of speech on Ello by naming March NSWF Month.

Now, if you head to their new new freedom of speech page you can see this message and get an instant invite:

Ello respects your right to free speech.

If you’re afraid you may someday get kicked off your social network or blogging platform because you post NSFW content, don’t sweat it. You’re always welcome on Ello.

Despite being declared dead many times since it was launched last year, and being criticised for its ‘inability’ to appeal to masses, the invite-only ad-free social network has been growing as a niche platform for designers and artists.

Ello plans to use alternative methods to generate revenue – an Ello Feature app store yet to be launched, and a t-shirt sale that sold “tens of thousands” of shirts.

Haters gonna hate. Meanwhile, enjoy your NSFW month!

I’m pretty sure Trust Engineer is a job title straight out of 1984

Over the last few months I’ve spent a lot of time working on usability and user experience in my day job since we’re in the middle of designing a new site. A lot of that time has been spent working on language and figuring out what words we can use to encourage people to take action.

Yesterday I listened to the most recent Radiolab podcast (embedded below) and it was a nice piece of serendipity. The podcast talks about the social engineers at Facebook and how their small tweaks to language and design can have big impacts on usability.

It’s amazing what the simple addition of the word “it’s” to a description of an emotion can have such a huge impact on the way that people perceive a tool.

via Radiolab

Someone at the Conservative Party of Canada is trying to justify all the time they spend on Buzzfeed at work

A few weeks ago a prominent Republican in the US published an article criticizing President Obama by using Taylor Swift gifs. The Buzzfeedification of the discourse was ridiculous but apparently not too uncommon as this picture recently popped up on Reddit.

CPC clickbait

A clickbait-y title like that on Facebook isn’t exactly out of place, and hey they work. What crops up further down in the comment thread though?

The Department of Foreign Affairs has, twice, published listicles on Buzzed as a community brand publisher. You can read 12 Ways Iran Is At War Over The Internet and 11 Myths Putin Is Spreading About The Crisis In Ukraine.

The DFATD talks Iran and the Internet

Maybe I’m just old fashioned but I find it hard to focus on a government sponsored listicle giving me the nuances of foreign policy when there’s an article promising to explain why people are sexually attracted to Simba from the Lion King giving me it’s siren call.

We live in a world where Taylor Swift gifs are seen as a valid form of political dissent…

TSwift-Thinking-2

I think we all just need to take a minute to appreciate that fact that the office of John Boehner – you know the guy 2nd in line to be in charge of the US after the VP – published an article on his website criticizing President Obama’s free college proposal, and that criticism took the form of 12 Taylor Swift gifs. I guess someone over there figured that if it works for Buzzfeed…

Actually here’s the thing, the article lists two authors, Deputy Communications Director and the Digital Communications Director of the office. That means that at least two people, probably more, sat in an office in DC and had a discussion about how they should connect with “youngsters” and that this was the result. I find it hilarious to think that the decision to use Taylor Swift was also probably very deliberate and thought out. 

On a more practical note the fact that they chose to use Taylor Swift gifs exclusively really hurt them. I can think of a few Kanye West gifs that really would have driven their point home more /s.

[infographic] The 3 most important words you should include in your title

Buzzfeed, and to a lesser extent Upworthy, get a lot of shit for the trend they started in attractive but uninformative titling. They deserve a lot of it but you can’t deny that their tactic works and that people can’t resist clicking on them.

Reddit user Minimaxir looked at around 60,000 Buzzfeed articles and tracked which 3 word phrases got the most Facebook shares. The answer will surprise you! (I couldn’t resist)

Buzzfeed 3-grams

Meshnet app takes off in Hong Kong

I saw an interesting article a couple days ago about FireChat taking off in Hong Kong because of the protests, a peer to peer chat program that uses a meshnet to work. That means that it doesn’t require any cell signal or wifi to work. Instead it creates a giant distributed network using everyone’s bluetooth.

The main benefit of this is that your ability to communicate can’t be shut down by outside sources (unless there’s some way to jam the bluetooth signal). The downside is that meshnets are by no means secure. I mean by default they’re about as insecure as you can get since they depend on a bunch of people creating a network with little in the ways of verification. So you’re particularly susceptible to what are called “man in the middle” attacks. Lot’s of meshnets use encryption to help deal with this but it’ll always be a worry.

On a (somewhat) related note, malware seems to be running rampant on mobiles in Hong Kong right now.

What the Ello is going on?

Ello – the new fast-growing, ad-free, anti-Facebook social network – has been around for months, but it has just entered the mainstream conversation over the past few days. 

You’ve seen it in the news, you’ve (probably) tried it out already, but you still have no idea where this is going to go. Well, neither do we, but here are some interesting facts and predictions that might help you make up your mind about this new social network.

ello

1. Ello is so popular it’s already been at the centre of a hoax

Yup. The site has been accused of banning a user for using the hashtag #GameGate and the picture of their alleged email to the user made the rounds on Twitter. Ello co-founder Todd Berger responded: “We don’t even have the capacity to send an email when we ban someone’s account yet.” Lolz.

2. Ello might be causing an LGBT exodus from Facebook

According to Tech Crunch and other sources, Ello’s user base boomed right after Facebook disabled the accounts of some drag artists and musicians who used their performance names instead of their real names. The fact that RuPaul actively encouraged people to switch to Ello might have helped as well.

3. WIRED: “Ello Doesn’t Care About Money—So It Won’t Work”

Hard to disagree with this view, but hey, this is also one of the reasons why people are willing to try it out  in the first place! Ello’s manifesto (below) appeals to those users who are sick of being treated like products and hungry for freedom. Plus, WhatsApp was born as an ad-free tool too and it’s been bought my evil Facebook still there, right?

ello_manifesto4. The Guardian: “Ello might or might not replace Facebook, but the giant social network won’t last forever”
Errr… I definitely don’t think Ello will be the new Facebook and I definitely don’t think Facebook will die anytime soon, but I believe users might diversify their social media habits and use Ello in a completely different way, while still checking out their Facebook newsfeed. That, if it goes past the Beta stage.

 

 5. Ello might not be that ‘free’ after all…

Aral Balkan – designer, social enterpreneur and founder of ind.ie – has harshly criticised Ello founder for taking $435,000 in seed funding from FreshTracks Capital.

He writes:

When you take venture capital, it is not a matter of if you’re going to sell your users, you already have. It’s called an exit plan. And no investor will give you venture capital without one.

…

Let me put it bluntly: if a company has taken venture capital, you have already been sold.

Got any interesting thoughts or predictions to share? Have your say in the comments below!

Sick of selfies? Get ready to hate #Selfielapse

Since its launch last month, Hyperlapse has been the new Instagram sensation. The app that lets you ditch the tripod and shoot timelapse videos with your mobile has now been updated  with a front-facing camera feature to accommodate selfie-lovers’ needs. Yay… *rolling eyes*

Get ready for the #Selfielaspe invasion, folks! (Or perhaps for the upcoming #SelfielapseNomination…)selfiesHere are some of the totally lame exciting videos waiting for you in the Insta-sphere. Enjoy!


Have you spotted any cool trend on the #Selfielapse front? Are you planning on running the next viral campaign using #Selfielapse?

Get in touch at contact.clicktivist@gmail.com and let us now!

 

 

You’re not late to the Internet

Over on Medium Kevin Kelly (of Wired) has written an interesting piece on the development of the Internet and the opportunities it presents.

[From] our perspective now, the greatest online things of the first half of this century are all before us. All these miraculous inventions are waiting for that crazy, no-one-told-me-it-was-impossible visionary to start grabbing the low-hanging fruit — the equivalent of the dot com names of 1984.

…

So, the truth: Right now, today, in 2014 is the best time to start something on the internet. There has never been a better time in the whole history of the world to invent something. There has never been a better time with more opportunities, more openings, lower barriers, higher benefit/risk ratios, better returns, greater upside, than now. Right now, this minute. This is the time that folks in the future will look back at and say, “Oh to have been alive and well back then!”

via Medium