Diaspora/Website

The alternative text in the square brackets is displayed if the image cannot be loaded, and the optional title is displayed as a tool-tip when the cursor is moved over the image; both are useful but not essential.

If you want your message to include a character which is also used in Markdown coding, you can prevent it from being read by Markdown as a formatting code by “escaping” it. To do this, place a backslash ( \ ) in front of the character. For example, typing

this \_ is an underscore

prevents Markdown from reading the underscore as a Markdown code and allows diaspora* to display the underscore rather than creating italic text.

You can, however, type “diaspora*” or “D*” without the asterisk being interpreted as a formatting code!

Special characters

You can create the following symbols and other special characters using a combination of characters:

There’s a more detailed description of Markdown’s syntax %{markdown_link}.

A simple way to make your profile more appealing is by adding more “profile fields” using text formatting in the Bio section. Use **bold** to create titles, and optionally use *italic* for the items. This way you can add any profile field you can possibly think of, such as music, books, relationship, and so on.

You can even use diaspora* as a notebook, to jot down things you’ll need to remember later, perhaps even notes for a presentation you’re giving. To do this, all you need to do is to create an aspect and <strong>add no one to it</strong>! That’s right, an empty aspect. What’s the point of this? Well, it means you can share things with this aspect, and no one will be able to see them. That means that this aspect can act as your private notebook. It can be a useful way of moving text or photos between one computer and another, and of keeping your notes and photos safe for whenever you log in to diaspora*.