Finally, the promise of a truly commercial-free social network is probably never going to happen. (To be fair, this isn’t what Ello is promising; they’ve simply published a “manifesto” saying they will never show you advertising or promoted posts.) There’s two reasons for this.

One, barring extremely vigilant moderation, every social network will see users twisting it towards commercial ends. (MetaFilter and, to a lesser degree, Reddit have been successful at keeping this type of activity to a minimum, but even they offer up advertising and have users clandestinely working behind the scenes to help brands sell.)

Two, social networks eventually have to pay for themselves. So far, no major social networking site has found a way to make people pay for the privilege of talking to their friends. Which, inevitably, leaves advertising. Ello may want to be pure as the driven snow, but engineers and servers don’t come cheap, and social networks can’t simply putter along with a few thousand (or even a few hundred thousand) users and be useful. If Ello is successful and grows, the site’s initial promise—that it will not be a place to sell but a “a place to connect, create and celebrate life"—will give way to economic reality. After that, it’s either endless rounds of VC funding, a quiet shuttering, or advertising and promoted posts.