Diaspora/Website

Then it’s just a matter of clicking the “Add contact” button and choose which aspect you want them to be part of. You’re now connected and can share with them as you would on any other network. Or, if they’re part of different aspects of your life, add them to multiple aspects. You’re now connected. It’s as easy as that. 

diaspora*’s aspects allow you to share with just those people you want to. You can be as public or as private as you like. Share a funny photo with the whole world, or a deep secret just with your closest friends. You’re in control.

Your life is made up of lots of different aspects, involving different people. Why should your online life be any different? With diaspora*’s aspects you can organize your online life as much as you want and share things only with the people you want to.

For example, you might have aspects for your family, for your closest friends, for work colleagues and for a sport or hobby you’re involved in. Your work colleagues don’t need to know about your family reunion, do they? With aspects, they won’t.

Of course, some things are so important that you want to tell the whole world about them. You can easily share something with the whole world by making it public. Using appropriate hashtags means it’ll reach people who are likely to enjoy it.

Hashtags allow you to flag and follow your interests, and help your posts reach like-minded people. They’re also a great way to meet fun and interesting new people on diaspora*.

Want to get someone’s attention? Just @mention them! It’s an easy way to alert one of your contacts to something you think they need to know about.

We’ve got a large community ready to help you get started. We suggest you check out our %{get_started_guide_link}, talk to us on our %{discourse_link} and come and meet us in the %{irc_link}.

Our project makes use of Code Triage, a volunteer service where users and developers can work together to tackle bugs in our %{github_link}.

Squashing small bugs helps everyone, and it can give a newcomer a better working knowledge of how parts of diaspora* works.

Our project is run entirely by community volunteers. We use a tool called Discourse to engage in conversations with our contributors about ideas and proposals.

Persuade your friends and family to join diaspora* by organizing your own real-life diaspora* %{meetup_link} in your own community.

Answer users’ questions on our %{irc_channel_link} or answer users’ questions on diaspora* itself by following the <span class="click">#help</span>, <span class="click">#question</span> and <span class="click">#feedback</span> hashtags.

Now you don’t have to settle for having your data on someone else’s server. Since diaspora* is completely free software, we’re constantly making it easier for individuals to %{host_pod_link}.

Instead of everyone’s data being held on huge central servers owned by a large organization, diaspora* exists on independently run servers (“pods”) all over the world. You choose which pod to register with, and you can then connect seamlessly with the diaspora* community worldwide.

You can be whoever you want to be in diaspora*. Unlike some networks, you don’t have to use your real identity. You can interact with people in whatever way you choose. The only limit is your imagination. diaspora* is also Free Software, giving you liberty over how you use it.

In diaspora* you own your data. You don’t sign over rights to a corporation or other interest who could use it. In addition, you choose who sees what you share, using Aspects. With diaspora*, your friends, your habits, and your content is your business ... not ours!

Find a pod that suits you. You might prefer a smaller pod, one which allows cross-posting to external services (such as Twitter), one based near you, or one based in a country that you know has good data security policies... The choice is yours! You can even %{host_yourself_link} if you have some sysadmin skills.

Once you’ve decided which pod is right for you, based on the ratings and information at %{poduptime} and maybe recommendations from people you trust, sign up there and create a profile with as much or as little personal information as you like. You are in control about how much you share.

Start following some #tags related to your interests: it could be <span class="click">#music</span>, <span class="click">#photography</span>, <span class="click">#privacy</span> or <span class="click">#linux</span> - whatever you’re into. Share a public message with the <span class="click">#newhere</span> tag to introduce yourself, and away you go. You’re now part of the vibrant diaspora* community.