Ello: a design disaster

I review hundreds of sites a day (thanks to Hackers News and others). I rarely see anything as unpleasant and impractical as Ello, seriously. From time to time, we see some startups that desperately try to be different and do it at any cost - usually at the cost of usability such as applying successful and familiar concepts.

Anyway, why would one use Ello vs Facebook? I don't mind ads if they are intelligent and I've discovered many products and services via Facebook ads. Google AdWords is a different story - often having duplicate links in the search results (which I penalize by clicking the ad, of course), it's a fierce SEO battlefield. I think Facebook has done an outstanding job and I don't mind it. Allowing me to provide feedback is a feature I use from time to time to make my experience in the future better. What I mind in Facebook is the annoying games. If Ello motto was anti-games, then I'd take it, but, thanks, I'm fine with ads, plus, none of my friends are leaving Facebook anytime soon.

Haha. They raise some good points (such as buttons and input fields looking exactly the same), but overall, I appreciated Ello and [most] of its design.

Glad to listen to a different opinion, though.