Diaspora/Website

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.

If you want to meet and be welcomed by the diaspora* community and are feeling confident enough, make a <strong>public</strong> post now to introduce yourself and include the <span class="click">#newhere</span> tag. Making public posts containing tags is a great way to make new friends on diaspora*. If you’re not sure about doing this now, don’t worry – we’ll take you through your first post step by step in %{part_link}.

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.

Because of the decentralized and open-source nature of diaspora*, it is possible for pod administrators to customize their pods. Therefore, depending on which pod you’re on, the interface might look very slightly different to how it’s described here. However, the essential elements should all be present, even if they are arranged slightly differently.

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:

In the sidebar you’ll see links to the different content views available in diaspora*: <span class="click">Stream</span>, <span class="click">My activity</span>, <span class="click">@Mentions</span>, <span class="click">My aspects</span>, <span class="click">#Followed tags</span> and <span class="click">Public activity</span>. We’ll explain these next. There are also some links to help you invite your friends, welcome new users, find help, connect to external services such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Wordpress (if available on your pod), post to diaspora* from the rest of the web (the diaspora* “bookmarklet”) and on some pods, contact information for the pod’s administrator and a button to donate to the costs of keeping your pod running.

The main column contains the content stream with a “publisher” box at the top. This is where the magic happens! We’ll cover using the publisher in %{part_link}.

Your “My activity” stream shows any posts which you have either liked or commented on. This is a useful way of catching up on any interactions you’ve been having in diaspora*. Posts in this stream are ordered according to the latest activity (comment or like) on each post.

My aspects

“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.

Click on <span class="click">My aspects</span> in the menu to see the list of your aspects. You can view posts made to all aspects, or just to one or more individual aspects, by selecting and deselecting them from the aspect list in the menu.

This view displays all available posts (public posts and limited posts made to aspects you have been placed in) containing tags you follow. We’ll look at tags in more detail in %{part_link}.

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.

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).

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

You can also view someone else’s profile page by clicking their name or avatar. How much of a person’s profile information and posts are made available to you depends on the type of sharing relationship they have with you.

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