Diaspora Alpha

[sudoer541]

Anyone familiar with Diaspora?
It looks like a good alternative to Facebook. :)
Too bad its still in Alpha stage.:( Any idea when it will be ready for general release?
I cant wait to use it, it look very secure compared to Facebook.

[Paqman]

I was interested, but the amount that their schedule has slipped by is not encouraging. In the meantime, Google+ has implemented a lot of their features. I can't see Diaspora gaining much headway, even if they do eventually release something. It'll see some use with free software enthusiasts but will remain largely underground, a bit like Identica.

[ZarathustraDK]

I think the drum to beat regarding Diaspora would be the control of private information.

Google and Facebook knows pretty much everything about you by now, unless you use other services. For that reason alone I'd skip to Diaspora in a heartbeat were it in a usable state.

[JDShu]

Diaspora development is too slow. I hate to say it since I am/was a big supporter a year ago, but the core team appears to lack the competence and experience to make a good product.

[Thewhistlingwind]

Diaspora development is too slow. I hate to say it since I am/was a big supporter a year ago, but the core team appears to lack the competence and experience to make a good product.

"BRB forking diaspora!"

I gotta say, I'm not sure whats taking so long.


Anyone familiar with Diaspora?
It looks like a good alternative to Facebook. :smile:
Too bad its still in Alpha stage.:sad: Any idea when it will be ready for general release?
I cant wait to use it, it look very secure compared to Facebook.

Alongside the release of duke nukem forev, oh wait, damn, I can't make that joke anymore.

[uRock]

Google+ is a fail.

[sudoer541]

How many people are working on Diaspora anyway?

As I said above I am looking for a social networking site that respects my privacy.
Unfortunately, Facebook does not respect my (our) privacy and that's a great concern for me.
I will stop using it soon (but its so addictive!)!

[JDShu]

How many people are working on Diaspora anyway?

As I said above I am looking for a social networking site that respects my privacy.
Unfortunately, Facebook does not respect my (our) privacy and that's a great concern for me.
I will stop using it soon (but its so addictive!)!

Diaspora was started by four fresh graduates from New York University, funded by Kickstarter. There was a lot of hype and hope surrounding it at the time, and there are many pods available today (check my sig for a free one you can sign up for). Unfortunately, it seems that their lack of experience showed and the first code release was horrifically insecure. According to security experts, these were newbie mistakes that indicated a lack of security knowledge by the core team, such that even if the obvious mistakes were patched, the overall design of the software is suspect.

[Thewhistlingwind]

the overall design of the software is suspect.

Didn't stop IRC!

/troll

So what do you want to do about it? Pimp XMPP again with (yet another) protocol extension and write a social network thats not facebook?

/troll, again.

[JDShu]

/troll


Back, back I say! :o

Anyway, I don't actually know the structure of either IRC nor Diaspora, but AFAIK IRC doesn't claim to protect your data.

Decentralization is always a good idea in principle, but then ideas are cheap - it seems that in FOSS we're always lacking in competence, experience and manpower :(

[fuduntu]

Google+ is a fail.

Uhh, what? In under a week Google+ had more users than Ubuntu.

[uRock]

Uhh, what? In under a week Google+ had more users than Ubuntu.

More than 40 of my friends opened their G+ account, posted 2 or 3 times, then posted on Facebook saying they didn't like it and wouldn't use it. Useage may vary, but from my perspective, Facebook can't be beat.

[MechaMechanism]

More than 40 of my friends opened their G+ account, posted 2 or 3 times, then posted on Facebook saying they didn't like it and wouldn't use it. Useage may vary, but from my perspective, Facebook can't be beat.
Ha, Facebook sucks. I don't even know why I use it. Hell Google+, Facebook, whatever, they all suck. The only one that don't suck is Twitter. All my tweets show up in my Facebook account which makes it look like I'm on Facebook when in reality I'm never on there.

What we need is a program that runs on each computer and distributes the network via bittorrent or some other thing. None of this central server crap, everything should be in the users hand. I'm thinking limewire only for social networking. Imagine searching for your friends through a interface like limewire.

[johnnybgoode83]

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc - they would all be awesome if not for the pointless crap that people post as their statuses.

[fuduntu]

More than 40 of my friends opened their G+ account, posted 2 or 3 times, then posted on Facebook saying they didn't like it and wouldn't use it. Useage may vary, but from my perspective, Facebook can't be beat.

Fair enough if taken from the context of your personal experience, but that doesn't mean it is a failure. It seems to be quite successful according to the numbers.

[Paqman]

Fair enough if taken from the context of your personal experience, but that doesn't mean it is a failure. It seems to be quite successful according to the numbers.

For a beta that hasn't even published an API yet it seems to be doing pretty well. Expect the floodgates to open when they publish an API and it starts to hook into other services.

From my personal perspective people have been generally complementary about it, particularly the mobile app. The only thing that keeps most of them from using it more is the inertia of switching from Facebook. That barrier should go down once the integration between them gets better.

[uRock]

Fair enough if taken from the context of your personal experience, but that doesn't mean it is a failure. It seems to be quite successful according to the numbers.

I don't see where Google+ offers anything not already offered by FB. For folks who have have huge image collections with different permission sets and so on, it would take hours if not days to transfer the data, then set the permissions to circles. Especially when it comes to this line of Google's Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/accounts/TOS),
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

[Paqman]

Especially when it comes to this line of Google's Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/accounts/TOS),

Facebook is exactly the same, except as you mention there's no easy way to get the photos out. At least G+ allows you to get your data back out easily. If you're bothered by conditions like the above, you don't put your photos on social networks, you host them yourself.

[uRock]

Facebook is exactly the same, except as you mention there's no easy way to get the photos out. At least G+ allows you to get your data back out easily. If you're bothered by conditions like the above, you don't put your photos on social networks, you host them yourself.
Nope, you can set permissions allowing or disallowing Facebook to share images and videos. https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

[Ms_Angel_D]

More than 40 of my friends opened their G+ account, posted 2 or 3 times, then posted on Facebook saying they didn't like it and wouldn't use it. Useage may vary, but from my perspective, Facebook can't be beat.

Maybe they are posting but just not to your circles ;)

[Thewhistlingwind]

I think "social networking" in general is a fail.

Second for second, minute for minute, day for day, facebook and company have probably been the biggest net loss in man hours since television.

[uRock]

Maybe they are posting but just not to your circles ;)

If they are, they don't have the guts to admit to it. :P There are a few friends who post there, but it is a real ghost town compared to FB. Maybe it'll change when it goes public. I noticed they added to the number of invites, as I had run out before and now I am at 150 left.

[uRock]

I think "social networking" in general is a fail.

Second for second, minute for minute, day for day, facebook and company have probably been the biggest net loss in man hours since television.

Facebook is definitely worse when it comes to time wasting apps and spam.

[johnnybgoode83]

Facebook is definitely worse when it comes to time wasting apps and spam.

I couldn't agree more. It would be a much better service if it got rid of the pointless apps and games, and banned people who post pointless crap like "Having pasta for dinner tonight - yum!"

[uRock]

I couldn't agree more. It would be a much better service if it got rid of the pointless apps and games, and banned people who post pointless crap like "Having pasta for dinner tonight - yum!"

Those pointless post may actually inspire someone to cook their own dinners and take a break from fast food. Though I am used to ignoring those posts.

[Paqman]

Nope, you can set permissions allowing or disallowing Facebook to share images and videos. https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Sure, same as G+. But by posting images on Facebook you grant them the same licence you grant Google on G+. From the page you linked:

"you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook"

In other words: "you own your content, but so do we!". The only real difference seems to be that there are conditions under which you can revoke that license with Facebook (even if they're virtually impossible to achieve), whereas Google says it's straight-up irrevocable.

[johnnybgoode83]

Those pointless post may actually inspire someone to cook their own dinners and take a break from fast food. Though I am used to ignoring those posts.

I doubt it. Some people are just too lazy to cook their own meals

[Paqman]

It would be a much better service if it got rid of the pointless apps and games, and banned people who post pointless crap like "Having pasta for dinner tonight - yum!"

Lol, you're under no obligation to actually follow vacuous people.

[johnnybgoode83]

Lol, you're under no obligation to actually follow vacuous people.

They are my real life friends so they would be offended if I 'un-friended' them.

[Paqman]

They are my real life friends so they would be offended if I 'un-friended' them.

Either way, it's your choice to continue following them. Complaining about it won't help.

I've unfriended two people on FB due to the junk they were posting. Admittedly that was promotional spam for their job rather than updates about their life, so it's a pretty legit reason to be unfriended IMO.

[johnnybgoode83]

I only have about 24 friends so I can't afford to lose any :(

[ScionicSpectre]

I have a pretty decent amount of friends on Diaspora, although I will say that only half of them I actually know. When I was on Facebook, I didn't have anyone I didn't know on my contact list.

The Diaspora users seem to be a bit more aware of politics and open ethos than anyone ever was on Facebook, but they still like to share pointless crap like any other social network. For me it's been largely pleasant- the peace of mind outweighs the discomfort of Diaspora not having 'everyone'.

Also, even though it's an 'Alpha', tons of features have been added lately, and I've never experienced any problems with it from day one. The only think I can think of that Facebook does than Diaspora doesn't is videogames.

Google+ is basically a proprietary Diaspora with more people and a video chat. Diaspora is pretty flexible in broadcasting, though, so I imagine it will be easy to interact with Google+ soon. I think this will only emphasize the need to make all networks a bit more interoperable, however. Just like email works- you can email anyone on any email server. You should be able to share pictures, videos, and messages across all social networks with any of them.

[northwestuntu]

Google+ is a fail.

well they have a big hill to climb thats for sure. i dont think it's so much that facebook is better it's that facebook beat them to the punch and are up 725 mil to 25 mil. gonna take a lot to convince people to change....most people hate change :D

[sancho panza]

Diaspora seems to be making good progress since their alpha last year. Today they launched a fully revamped website (http://diasporafoundation.org/).

[kostageas]

I used to have a diaspora, don't remember my login. Unfortunately, it's totally useless unless your friends are on there. I don't see it happening any time soon.

Same with identi.ca I would prefer it to Twitter, but all of my friends are on Twitter.

[michaelcarey95]

I just created a Diaspora account in honor of this thread. If anyone would like to add me I am "michaelcarey95@diasp.org"

[DangerOnTheRanger]

Not sure if this is thread resurrection, but anyway, I've had a Diaspora account for quite some time (and still use it actively), so in case anyone wants to add me, it's: dangerontheranger@diasp.org