Diaspora/Website

In this view you will see a list of your tags. Clicking on a tag in the sidebar will take you to the stream for that tag. You can stop following a tag by clicking the cross by its name in the sidebar.

Profile view

Clicking your name or profile image (your “avatar”) anywhere you see it takes you to your profile page. This shows you all the posts you have made in diaspora*. It also displays your profile photo, screen name, “about me” tags and your “<strong>diaspora* ID</strong> (which looks like an email address, starting with the user name you chose followed by the name of your pod).

Under your avatar you’ll see any extra profile information you have added, such as birthday, location, gender, biography and so on.

Click the blue <span class="click">Edit my profile</span> button if you want to change any of your profile information (see %{part_link}).

If they are sharing with you, there will be a green tick next to their diaspora* ID. If not, there will be a gray circle.

At the top right you’ll find an aspects button. If the person is not in one of your aspects, it will read “Add contact;” if they are, it will be green and show the name of the aspect you’ve placed them in. Click it to add them to an aspect. If you are ignoring that person, the button will be red and will read “Stop ignoring.”

That’s all you need to know about the interface for now. The first thing you will want to do is finding some people to start sharing with. However, before we get to that, let’s focus on something that features prominently throughout diaspora*: <strong>aspects</strong>.

Part 3 – Aspects

All about aspects

Think of your life and the people you know. Each person is a part of one or more aspects of your life. They might be a member of your family, a close friend, a work colleague or someone you play sport or music with or with whom you share a particular interest. They might be someone you just like sharing jokes with online. Or they might be part of more than one of these aspects of your life.

Click <span class="click">My aspects</span> in the sidebar and a list of your aspects will appear. To add an aspect, click <span class="click">+ Add an aspect</span> under the list of aspects in the menu. You will be presented with a pop-up window.

This guide uses an aspect called “Diaspora” as an example, but give your aspect whatever name you want.

Choose a name for the new aspect. This might reflect the common connection between these people, perhaps “Creative writing,” “Football,” or “Activists,” but you can call it whatever you like. <strong>No one else will ever be able to see the names of your aspects, and your contacts will never know which aspect(s) they are in. That is your business alone.</strong>

First, let’s look at the “My aspects” menu. From your stream, click <span class="click">My aspects</span> in the sidebar. A list of your aspects will drop down, and you’ll see a stream containing only posts made by people you have placed into whichever aspects are selected in the list. If you’ve only just signed up, there will be just the four default aspects, and there might not yet be anyone in any of your aspects. We’ll fix that very soon!

Right now all your aspects should be selected, with ticks next to them.

You can click aspects in the menu to select or deselect them.

You can select just one aspect, or any combination of them.

If all aspects are selected and you want to view just one, click <span class="click">Deselect all</span> and then select the one you want.

Why not play around with it for a few seconds?