onG.Social - Thoughts and Reactions
By Commodore Trevor
I have been seeing a lot of buzz about a social platform called onG.Social. I don't know much about this platform, but I have been seeing ads for an ICO and since I enjoy working with Cryptocurrencies I thought what the Hell let's give it a shot and see what this is all about. The Marketing is catchy and highly polished. When I signed up and went to the site there were some glaring oddities that I experienced.
First they were really pushing the $47 per month in free social media tools. What those tools are though are still a mystery to me. From what I can understand between the monstrous Whitepaper and the overly complex user guide, they basically allow you to cross post on Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook at the moment. Ok that's cool but there are other free apps that can do that.
Next is the the massive whitepaper that they are trying to push. Yeah I enjoy reading different coin's whitepapers, but this one is extra long. It introduces the potential user to their overly complex system of rankings. I thought Steemit was complex when I first started using it, but this is even more so. The message that was really pushed this whitepaper is that the platform is a new etherium based block chain that will revolutionize your social media experience. Buried in the finer print though is that the platform is intended as a tool for social media marketers to cross post quickly and easily and get a share of the revenue. I will admit that this is a cool concept and as a social media marketer I spend a lot of time using these tools to get my message out.
At this point I decided to look into it more because I use these tools anyway so why not get some crypto while I am doing it. My next impression however is that this thing is trying to be a cash cow. They are pushing the ICO, plus there are ads all over the site. This probably helps with an influx of money initially, but the site also promises to give you a 10% share of the action.
What the hell are they giving me a 10% share of...at this point I am so confused that I turn to the Quick Start guide. After reading about 15 pages of this behemoth I just say screw it and I want to poke around on the site. Seriously my job is digital and social media marketing and I am getting lost on this thing...some quick start.
So I started to poke around the site and the first thing I am confronted with is a banner asking me if I want to get an 80% share of the mysterious profits. Naturally because I am a human programmed to consume and think more is better I say "Ok lets see what you have to offer". The link drops me on this shiny page:
With premium this and gold that it gets my consumer side thinking "God Platinum Premier! It's platinum but better!" But then the marketer side of me is thinking "Damn fine lipstick on a really pretty pig." At this point I am wondering what kind of value the $800 unobtainium package offers. I know it says 799.99 but lets face it...more marketing BS. What could a I possibly be getting from this amount of money that would produce a profit to justify me spending that kid of cash. Ok too much so lets look at the features of the gold package. This is about the same price as my web hosting and I already get almost all of that plus the whole Gsuite of products. Oh also I get 100% of my ad monitization on my site.
At this point the complexity is so high that it should turn off most users and I know it is still in beta, but with all of the marketing hype I would not expect this:
This just seems so unpolished and the site is riddled with broken links.
My most major concern however is to get paid out they are requiring a lot of personal information including bank accounts and tax forms. Firstly I am not willing to give that out to just anyone online. This just feels wrong like I am asking to have my identity stolen. Second it seems to go against the cryptocurrency principals of decentralization since they are blatantly asking for all of my private information...and not just business information.
Personally I probably wouldn't try to spend any time using this platform, but if you have some positive experiences with it or other insight that I am missing please drop me a comment with your thoughts.
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Hi, I want to just say thank you for stopping by onG.social website. I personally launched the site several years ago. It has honestly been one of the most difficult journeys I could have imagined. The first developer actually ripped the idea and took our money and we had to basically start over. Eventually, we did find great development team and got a nice MVP platform market,but not without encountering many challenges along the way. Even something as simple as providing instructions can be challenging! People complained that there weren't enough instructions, so we put together the PDF as detailed as possible, which other people do not want. We also put together video instructions for those who don't want to read the PDF instructional. Regarding the marketing and "free tools", you can see the list of tools that we include in the screen shot you posted, but we have pivoted on our message a number of times, which is just part of marketing/split testing what will resonate with our target audience. Bottom line is that we take feedback very seriously and really want to do the best we can to accommodate the community members using our platform. I appreciate you taking the time for the review. One of our core values is the value of choice, and it is our goal to provide users with as much control as possible. For example, the ads on any pages, we give you control of, so if you want to earn money from them then you can either automate or can customize according to category, but if you don't want advertisements on your social pages, then you can turn them off completely. As for the upcoming ICO on July 17th, that will allow us to implement a system that isn't dependent on ad revenue and allow us to give our members the choice of earning cryptocurrency, which we plan on providing the ability for multiple cryptocurrency earnings from our platform. With that more choices will be offered and it is important to us that our members continue to have their voices heard without censorship and continue to receive monetization for their efforts. I agree that the whitepaper is a bit complex, but these systems take a lot of planning and many times the underlying technology and algorithms can be very complex , yet hopefully graceful on the surface. Take Steemit for example, it is masterfully done with a very nice UI/UX, yet the level of complexity behind it is extensive. Anyway, thanks again for your time and for telling people about us - good or bad. We will do our best to continue to make improvements and after the ICO hope you can come see us again.
I really appreciate your fantastic response to such a scathing review of your service. That amount of professionalism that you put into crafting this response speaks volumes to your commitment to the platform. Especially faced with a such a harsh criticism of the platform and someone who may never return I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed response.
Because of your awesome response you have really piqued my interest on your platform and I am actually really interested in giving your platform another shot.
I will write a follow up to this when I get the opportunity explore your platform more and really dive into what you have. Thanks again for the personalized attention to my concerns and thoughts on the platform!
Well, I appreciate any comments good and bad and really glad you will give us another try in the future. We have worked really hard with a small team the past few years. After the ICO launch next month we plan on taking all of the feedback and implementing the improvements for people like yourself who have taken their precious time to give feedback. Much appreciated. I looked at your Rafting Magazine photos and looks like a great time! Well done. Cheers!