Ello violates something I say a lot, which, I alluded to briefly at the end of my last post — if you are building the future your team has to be more diverse than the starship Enterprise was fifty years ago. Bare minimum. This is another social network built by a team of cisgender white dudes. These crowds aren't homogenous because people are nice. It is because they have, in the subtlest ways, filtered others out.
Last week, I spoke at a tech conference that was 100% female speakers, maybe half were women of color, and a few queer women. It was awesome. I could actually talk to people rather than fret away, paralyzed with anxiety about how to fit in. There were a lot of men in the audience but they didn’t take up space. They weren’t there to lord over everyone with their wisdom and one up each other. They were there to listen. Anyone was welcome in that room. That's how communities online and off should always be. I think sometimes people assume because they cycle to work and cook CSA veggies, this conversation doesn't apply to them. But we expect so much more from you.
