Diaspora/Website

If you want to include a bare link into your message, simply paste the URL into the publisher and it will automatically be converted into an inline link. You don’t need to use Markdown unless you want the link to look fancy!

Images

Embedding an image from the web into your message is similar to including a link. Click the <span class="click">image</span> button above the publisher window, and paste the URL of the image into the pop-up which appears.  This will enter the URL into your post, wrapped in Markdown image code. Type some “alt text” (the text you want to appear in your message if the image can’t be displayed) over the highlighted text in square brackets. You can also add an optional title, which will be displayed as a tool-tip when the cursor is moved over the image.

Note: For this to work, you must provide a direct link to a valid image file (ending in .jpg, .gif, .png or similar), <em>not</em> to a web page with an image or images on it.

diaspora* uses a simple mark-up system called Markdown. If you want to do anything not covered by the formatting buttons, you can find more about how to use Markdown in %{format_link}.

To help diaspora* pods perform faster, your stream won’t be constantly reloaded automatically. Just refresh the page whenever you want to check for updates to your stream.

When you hover over any post in the stream, several icons will appear at the top right-hand corner of the post. These allow you to do some useful things:

Enable/disable notifications

Next to the x is a little bell icon. If the bell is gray, that means you aren’t currently receiving notifications of activity on this post. Click it to turn the bell black, and you will now receive notifications for this post. If you’re already receiving notifications and no longer want them, click the bell to turn it from black to gray.

Report someone’s post

If you believe a post contravenes your pod’s code of conduct, for instance if you believe it is abusive or is spam, you can click the report icon (an exclamation point in a triangle). This will bring up a report form, which will be sent to your pod’s admin. Please make sure you’re aware of your pod’s terms of service before reporting a post. You can find a link to your pod’s <span class="click">Terms of service</span> in the sidebar.

There are five tabs on the account settings page: <strong>Profile</strong>, <strong>Account</strong>, <strong>Privacy</strong>, <strong>Services</strong> and <strong>Applications</strong>.

“NSFW”

diaspora* has a self-governing community standard called NSFW (not safe for work). If you’re likely to post much material which may not be suitable for everyone to view at their office desk (perhaps with their boss standing behind them), please consider checking the NSFW box. This will hide your posts from people’s streams behind a notice that the post is marked as NSFW. They can then click this notice to view your post if they wish.

By leaving this box unchecked, you are committing yourself not to post any material which could potentially cause offence or get someone into trouble for viewing it at work. If, on the other hand, you might want to post such material only occasionally, you could leave this box unchecked and add the <span class="click">#nsfw</span> tag to those individual posts, which will hide them from other people’s streams.

Community spotlight

On the settings page you can also enable the “community spotlight,” if this feature is available on your pod. The “community spotlight” adds posts to your stream from community members who your pod’s admin has selected as being people worth reading. It can be a good way to find people to connect with when you first join diaspora*.

Applications

This tab displays a list of any applications you have authorised in your diaspora* seed.