Diaspora/Website

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

Part 1 – Signing up

Welcome to our “Getting started” guide. If you’ve found your way to this page, you’ve probably either just signed up to diaspora* or you’re thinking of doing so. In this series of tutorials we’ll walk you through the sign-up process and get you acquainted with the basics of how diaspora* works. We hope you find it useful, and that you enjoy using diaspora*!

Unlike most social networking sites, which have a central hub of computers which store everyone’s data, we can’t give you one specific link and say: “Sign up here.” diaspora* is different from those networks in that it is <em>decentralized</em>, with many different points of access. Before getting started, you’ll have to decide which of these points, or nodes, you want to use to access the diaspora* network. We call these nodes “pods.”

The word “<strong>diaspora</strong>” refers to the dispersal of seeds (or people) over a wide area. That’s why our motif is the dandelion, and the asterisk in our name represents a fluffy dandelion seed. We refer to individual accounts on diaspora* as “<strong>seeds</strong>,” and the servers in which those accounts are collected as “<strong>pods</strong>.” You’ll get used to it soon!

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

guide to choosing a pod