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The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

waxy.org

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Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#251

Post by Analemma_ »

DeathArrow wrote: post #207
Analemma_ wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean Bluesky is founded by Jack Dorsey, who made a fortune for shareholders with his last social media company by conning an idiot into paying way above market value for it. Of course it'll be hard to make that particular lightning bolt strike twice, but it's not like he doesn't have a good track record.

>conning an idiot into paying way above market value for it. That idiot, how you call him, bought the user base and the market position of Twitter. Either he has a plan to make it profitable or he doesn't care, as long as he doesn't loose too much money.

The fact that he immediately tried to back out of the deal, to the point of going to court about it, suggests to me your version of events is not correct and the "idiot got conned" interpretation is much closer to the truth.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#252

Post by dopeboy »

RobKohr wrote: post #248
myfriendnewton wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was my favorite job I've ever had. It was intense in the best way. I didn't have much contact with Budnitz, but the other 6 founders showed such a strong passion for the community, it was impossible for me to not to come to work excited. I'd say most of the negative stress I felt was from knowing that the user base was growing faster than we could fill in feature gaps that would keep folks engaged. I felt like we…

That last bit - why not? What is wrong with an in house ui framework. I have built many of them to good effect.

Not OP but probably a waste of effort for an early stage startup.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#253

Post by myfriendnewton »

dopeboy wrote: post #252
RobKohr wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That last bit - why not? What is wrong with an in house ui framework. I have built many of them to good effect.

Not OP but probably a waste of effort for an early stage startup.

This. Time is precious, many good options already exist, and it's hard to do well, particularly in such a way that it doesn't cause unnecessary friction later. Unless your business _is_ building a UI framework, it's probably not integral to the business, thus acts as a pretty big distraction that isn't easy to pivot into a business itself.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#254

Post by leoff »

wideopenjake wrote: post #99

Early on in Ello's life, possibly year 1, I interviewed for a job with them - back when their office was basically one floor of a residence, and all the engineers pretty much worked at a single dinner table packed with monitors. I probably scored the interview because of my previous experience as CTO of a startup social network for people who wanted social change (which we sold to Gaiam, and that's how it eventually…

> I remember being rather underwhelmed by what they asked me to do

funny how people that say this are often the ones bombing the interview.

usually the ones who score well, are the ones that see how the simplicity of the given problem gives them room to show how well they understand the domain, and they appreciate it.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#255

Post by Cthulhu_ »

leoff wrote: post #254
wideopenjake wrote: post #99

Early on in Ello's life, possibly year 1, I interviewed for a job with them - back when their office was basically one floor of a residence, and all the engineers pretty much worked at a single dinner table packed with monitors. I probably scored the interview because of my previous experience as CTO of a startup social network for people who wanted social change (which we sold to Gaiam, and that's how it eventually…

> I remember being rather underwhelmed by what they asked me to do funny how people that say this are often the ones bombing the interview. usually the ones who score well, are the ones that see how the simplicity of the given problem gives them room to show how well they understand the domain, and they appreciate it.

Most software like this is simple; the danger is that some developers will overcomplicate a solution, or think there's more to it than there really is. A trick question if you will.

Don't judge a company by its tests, if they're easy for you to do it's not a slight on the company or the skills required.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#256

Post by wegfawefgawefg »

StreetChief wrote: post #249
wegfawefgawefg wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

im sure that sort of stuff is on there, but all the stuff my friends and i see on there is memes, and Id guess thats representative of most of the 20s age userbase. We didnt notice any change during the buyout or rebrand except some different meme recommendations for a bit. There are a lot more ads between my memes now though. It hit a critical density where we dont use it anymore. 40% ads

So to summarize, you have stopped using twitter because of ad increases since elon took over?

I have a very low tolerance for ads. I mostly dont use it anymore. Id say five of the ten in the group stopped altogethor. That was in the past three or four months or so where the density really really increased.

That does differ from what people are saying which is that somehow elon lost all the ad companies support and so is unable to serve ads, or that twitter is an alt right cesspool.

The only political tweets we ever saw were elons, and hes 52 and we are from texas, so it just seemed like normal old people stuff.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#257

Post by wideopenjake »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #255
leoff wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I remember being rather underwhelmed by what they asked me to do funny how people that say this are often the ones bombing the interview. usually the ones who score well, are the ones that see how the simplicity of the given problem gives them room to show how well they understand the domain, and they appreciate it.

Most software like this is simple; the danger is that some developers will overcomplicate a solution, or think there's more to it than there really is. A trick question if you will. Don't judge a company by its tests, if they're easy for you to do it's not a slight on the company or the skills required.

Oh, I totally agree. That wasn't intended as a slight toward the company; rather, the solution to the problem was (if I remember correctly) only a few lines of code, but I think the test was tailored to more junior candidates, who might have needed to talk through it more (and as a result, have provided more insight into their thought process).

At the time, I didn't realize _that_ was likely what they were evaluating, but in my experience interviewing engineers since then helped me realize what I'd overlooked.

I mentioned they passed on me mostly for transparency given the rest of my comment, but I can understand how it might have sounded otherwise. I liked their concept and stayed connected for a while after, not something I normally tend to do if there's bad blood.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#258

Post by wideopenjake »

leoff wrote: post #254
wideopenjake wrote: post #99

Early on in Ello's life, possibly year 1, I interviewed for a job with them - back when their office was basically one floor of a residence, and all the engineers pretty much worked at a single dinner table packed with monitors. I probably scored the interview because of my previous experience as CTO of a startup social network for people who wanted social change (which we sold to Gaiam, and that's how it eventually…

> I remember being rather underwhelmed by what they asked me to do funny how people that say this are often the ones bombing the interview. usually the ones who score well, are the ones that see how the simplicity of the given problem gives them room to show how well they understand the domain, and they appreciate it.

I mentioned this in another comment, but yeah, I bombed the interview precisely because I understood the problem and its domain but failed to walk through my initial thinking process with the interviewer who was pairing with me. I was approaching it as a technical problem, not an evaluation of my ability to pair with peers - which was why I was underwhelmed.

Having said that - over the years, I now much prefer conducting interviews where interviewer and candidate walk through a problem, figuring out a solution together; they provide much more insight into a candidate compared to rote memorization/whiteboard tasks like "Implement a linked list". So, in the end, I've learned to appreciate their approach.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#259

Post by pharmakom »

altacc wrote: post #220
DeathArrow wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X switches to subscription exactly because politics forces them to, by trying to scare and shame advertisers. Once subscription revenue is enough, scare and shame won't work and politics won't have anything to do with the future of the business.

Complaining about the advertisers leaving X is true "leopards ate my face". Politics has been a significant part of Twitter's success, driving relevance & audience size. Politics was fuel for growth and Twitter was influential partially because of it's openness. The moderation was there because being a relatively balanced & hate free spare without too much controversy was essential for the majority of advertisers. To…

Elon could have bought 4chan and saved himself a bunch of time and money.

Re: The quiet death of Ello's big dreams

#260

Post by nrb »

DeathArrow wrote: post #209
moomin wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re all over this thread but I think you need to read it a bit more carefully. There’s no reference to any belief system in the post you’re replying to, there’s an assertion about expected profit and control. You can disagree with that assertion, and indeed have on another thread, but within the context of the assertion the poster is correct. I think you’re wrong to even think this is about “ideology”, which is pr…

The post I replied to, was talking about founders that care about anything. As opposed to founders that do not care and are in it just for the money. That's how I read it and you have the right to disagree. That's why we are on a discussion forum. To share ideas and speak our minds freely, regardless if we agree or not. I hope you have fun tracking and counting my posts and it represents a good spending of your time.

I read it as: this advice applies universally, as in any space you are passionate about.
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