Diaspora/Website

Huge thanks to Kevin Kleinman, who created the original Diasporial guides on which these tutorials are based.

To help you choose which pod is best for you, have a look at our %{wiki_link} to help you.

Once you have chosen a pod, find the <span class="click">Sign up</span> link. It should be right there on the home page of the pod. If there is no “sign up” link, it might be that this particular pod is not currently accepting new registrations. You can check this by visiting the pod’s statistics page (add <code>/statistics</code> to the pod’s domain name in the URL bar). If registrations are closed on this pod, you’ll need to choose another pod.

When you click the sign-up link you will be presented with a page on which you need to enter a user name, e-mail address and password. Think carefully when choosing your user name as you won’t be able to change it once it’s been created

Finish registration by clicking <span class="click">Continue</span> to create and access your brand new diaspora* seed!

You should now be presented with a “Getting started” page. You don’t have to fill out any of the information on this page, but it will help you start to making connections with other people if you do.

Enter the name you want displayed on screen in the first field.

Click the button to upload a profile image (an “avatar”) from your computer.

Click <span class="click">Take me to diaspora*! >></span>

Before you do anything else, take a minute to fill out your profile. On the screen you’re taken to, click your name or avatar at the right-hand end of the black header bar, and select <span class="click">Profile</span> from the list which drops down. Then click the blue <span class="click">Edit my profile</span> button in the top right corner.

There are two parts to your profile: the <strong>basic profile</strong>, which is public, and the <strong>detailed profile</strong>, which is private by default. Your public profile is visible to everyone; your private profile is visible only to people you have chosen to share with. You can fill out as much or as little of your profile as you like, and you don’t have to use your real name if you don’t want to. If you want everyone to know as much about you as possible, you can make your entire profile public.

Don’t forget to click the <span class="click">Update profile</span> button once you’re finished!

You’re all set to start using diaspora*! Click the pod name or <span class="click">Stream</span> in the top left of the screen to start.

You’re now looking at an interface that might be unfamiliar to you. (If you’re still on the edit profile page, click the pod name or <span class="click">Stream</span> at the left-hand end of the black header bar.) Let’s have a quick look at the layout and start to get familiar with it.

The main interface can be divided into four parts.

At the top of the screen is the header bar, which always remains in place, even when you scroll down the page. This header bar contains:

Beneath the header there are two columns:

The different views available in diaspora* are:

Posts in the stream are ordered according to the time of the original post.

“My aspects” displays all posts made by all the people with whom you are sharing – that is, the people you have placed into your aspects. Don’t worry if you don’t know what an aspect is – we’re going to cover this in detail in the next part.