
Vero – An ad-free social network - tambourine_man
https://www.vero.co/
======
bunsenhoneydew
Might be worth a quick look at this before you sign up:
[https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/03/how-vero-went-from-
mos...](https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/03/how-vero-went-from-most-loved-
to-most-hated-social-media-app-in-a-matter-of-days/)

~~~
shaki-dora
Money quote: “a construction company run by his family withheld pay from
thousands of immigrant workers, and then abandoned them without food, water or
electricity in labour camps.”

------
aestetix
Will they allow me to pay for my account?

The devil in the details on all of these systems is that "free" doesn't
actually exist. It's part of what killed Twitter (which is now a shell of its
former self), and part of why Ello lost a lot of support (when Ello took VC
funding).

That said, given how toxic the landscape has become, I'm not really inclined
to use _any_ social network unless they can reasonable resolve the abuse
problems.

~~~
chrisdsaldivar
Yeah, you have to pay for your account. However, the first million users are
free forever. Due to the demand they've extended the free user period for an
indeterminate amount of time.

~~~
beagle3
I hear echoes of WhatsApp’s “first year is free, then $1/year, but we’ll keep
extending free as long as we can”

~~~
crtasm
...and then a buyout by Facebook?

------
hutattedonmyarm
I've been on it for a few days. A surprising amount (that is, around 5) of
friends have joined so far, and most of them are not part of the tech crowd.
Couldn't do much testing though, no matter what I tried doing it failed with a
server error

------
zeronight
I downloaded and looked around the app a few days ago, it seems really
consumer media focused. Where Twitter allows you to post just text and later
added photos, links and videos Vero seems to be taking the opposite and forces
you to pick a category for the post.

It also encourages sharing movies and music but that's not what I go to social
networks for.

------
Sir_Substance
>Like many social apps including WhatsApp, Vero requires an active phone
number to create an account.

>(generally speaking, phone numbers are harder to falsify than email
addresses).

Well, that's unfortunate. Generally speaking, spam to your mobile phone is
harder to filter and block than spam to your email, too. I never give my phone
number to websites, my phone is for people.

~~~
feistypharit
Check out [https://sudoapp.com](https://sudoapp.com)

~~~
Sir_Substance
Interesting, shame it's iOS only. I'd pay $30USD per year for their free
offering if it had a linux client.

edit: I see they have a web client coming soon. I'll keep it bookmarked,
thanks!

------
PepeCyB
[https://www.kuketz-blog.de/vero-die-naechste-social-
network-...](https://www.kuketz-blog.de/vero-die-naechste-social-network-sau-
wird-durchs-dorf-getrieben/)

~~~
cyphunk
rough english summary: the vero privacy policy explicitly permits passing your
data with 3rd parties. Also: analysis of what data the app transmits to other
sites is shown and somewhat revealing

worth reading the translated version:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kuketz-
blog.de%2Fvero-die-naechste-social-network-sau-wird-durchs-dorf-
getrieben%2F&edit-text=)

~~~
madeofpalk
To be fair, isn't that required though to operate a website? If you want to
use a CDN, you will need to 'pass user data' to a 3rd party. You'll need to
state that down in your terms and conditions.

The worst they can be accused of is not being explicit enough about what 3rd
parties and why they need to do that.

------
daveid
Here is a thread about why Vero is bad:
[https://twitter.com/_heyheytyler/status/968301107536523265](https://twitter.com/_heyheytyler/status/968301107536523265)

~~~
gaius
The irony of someone on Twitter complaining about signing over the rights to
your content...

~~~
SyneRyder
I agree, that particular tweet was not very bright. The same "worldwide, non-
exclusive, royalty-free license" to "use, display and reproduce" your content
is also in the Twitter terms and conditions, and is standard for any website
that allows user generated content. (Including the one you're reading right
now.)

------
amelius
If I switch, it will be to an open, decentralized network.

~~~
rayalez
[https://mastodon.social](https://mastodon.social)

~~~
amelius
Thanks for the link. I found some interesting criticism here:

[https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-
water-888c10e...](https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-
water-888c10e8abb1)

~~~
rainbowmverse
Still going strong almost a year later.

------
annjose
And the site is down. >>> Due to the large wave of new users joining over the
past several days, we have encountered technical issues which have left many
experiencing service interruptions. We thank you for your patience and
encouragement as we work to make Vero available to everyone.

------
hardwaresofton
I was going to suggest ello ([https://ello.co](https://ello.co)), but it looks
like they've pivoted from a general social network to something for artists
(which probably makes sense for them).

For those who feel like they might fit with Ello, maybe check it out

~~~
dredmorbius
In fairness, that was the original plan.

What's sad is that a modest number of features would make Ello a great
text/writing platform. Those have not been forthcoming, and there's little
sign they ever will be.

I've dialled back activity accordingly.

~~~
hardwaresofton
I get the feeling making something like that a reality would entail getting
lots of poets/writers to get on Ello, then basically campaigning to get
"awareness" of text based art.

Ello is pretty beautifully designed and the stuff I saw some great art on
there, so I'm happy that they're doing what they do best.

~~~
dredmorbius
Ell had (and still has) a bunch of writers. We've just never had the basics
and most have wandered.

Ksenia Anske, a Russian-American fiction author, was on of the last holdouts.
Trenton Lee Tiemeyer des great poetry.

Good luck actually finding their work.

------
ReverseCold
I hope their Network effect plan (to get paying users) works - because a non-
spying social network (even if it's not end to end encrypted) is really
needed.

Are there even any other ways for them to make money? Any viable business
models other than ads or subscriptions?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Donations to a foundation, similar to Signal's $50 million donation they
received [1]. Run the service more like Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap (as a
utility), and less like Facebook or Instagram. Requires corporate structuring
to prevent acquisition.

[1] [https://www.wired.com/story/signal-foundation-whatsapp-
brian...](https://www.wired.com/story/signal-foundation-whatsapp-brian-acton/)

------
primitur
I'm rather more inclined to use Akasha to supplant my current social network
tools:

[https://akasha.world/](https://akasha.world/)

The only challenge, really, is convincing my friends to use it.

~~~
gressquel
"powered by Ethereum" -well I aint joining a site whose scalability relies on
Ethereum who couldnt even handle few million cryptokitties.

~~~
primitur
Haven't had any problems with it personally, but I only have about 100 people
in my network.

------
muppetman
I'm over anything that claims to be "social". I think time has shown that
these networks are almost unsocial and encourage people to post only the best,
most boastworthy things. The portal into their perfect life when we all know
that no one's life is like that.

Real socialness isn't like that.

Me being the product of the existing Social Networks isn't what's failed as
far as I'm concerned.

------
taziden
True social? Fuck that shit.

