FWIW, I’ve heard tell from other developers in the Federation/Fediverse that the Diaspora developers have been less than collaborative. They didn’t document their protocol. So, the only way for other platforms (“facets”) to federate with it was to reverse engineer it. When developers on other projects have had questions/issues, the Diaspora team was reportedly not very open to discussion. There are, of course, two sides to every story but it does resonate with my feeling that Diaspora is a closed world.

Diaspora could, in essence, unite the Free Network by implementing the ActivityPub protocol. (While the Diaspira platform was first to gain popularity, ActivityPub is now the most common protocol and is what appears to be preferred by new projects.)

But everyone making this network possible is a volunteer. So, they get to make their own choices about where to put their energy. I have accounts on Diaspora, Madtodon, Friendica, Hubzilla, Osada, and Pixelfed. And so I’ve sought user help on all of them. Hubzilla (all protocols), Friendica (all protocols), Osada (Zot and activityPub), and Pixelfed (ActivityPub only) developers have been the most engaged and non-judgy and open to suggestion. In fact, it really says something when a n00b posts a question on a user forum and the first reply they get is from the original author of the platform and it’s one of open discussion.

@Trevor Schadt Maybe stagnantware. But since G+ announced that its long, slow suicide it started in 2014 is finally going to be successful, tons of folks leary of getting onto another closed system are looking at D* as a top contender for their home. And that includes lots of open source devs who want to get involved.

Other top contenders right now are MeWe and Minds.com. MeWe is a closed system but with great features and a polished UI. That will draw in "convenience" social users and topic-focused communities. Minds big draw is that it rewards the more polished content creators (bloggers / long format writing) and even pays if you can get a big enough audience.

Diaspora has the potential to grab a large portion also: techies, geeks, devs, you know, us nerds. Anyone who remembers G+ from early beta will tell you that one of the most amazing things about it was that it seemed like a community for geeks by geeks. Hell, most of the conversations we had were about the platform than anything else. That initial explosion is what got G+ off the ground and created the buzz around it.

The next year could be a tectonic shift for Diaspora. Fingers crossed.

Hubzilla. Friendica is a close second. Both connect with all the protocols, so you can connect to users on all of the platforms and they all appear in your stream. My stream is a mix of Diaspora, Friendica, Mastodon, Hubzilla, Osada, and Socialhome users. But Hubzilla’s nomadic identity feature has come in so, so handy when my primary instance has had having performance issues. A couple months back, my Diaspora pod stopped federating, and pod users could only talk to each other. It got very quiet. It took the podmins a few days to detect it and sort it out. On Hubzilla, you can just go to your cloned account on another pod and pick up where you left off. To all of your connections, you still appear to be alive on the primary account.

I also actively use my Mastodon account on canine.cloud. On Mastodon, the local timeline features heavily in the user interface. So, people set up instances around common interests—in this case dog lovers. Sometimes, mentally, I need a break and just want to be immersed in stuff that is enjoyable to me. So, I like having a site where I know the local timeline will be all doggos.

I also plan to make better use of my Pixelfed account once federation gets flipped on (very soon). I will use this site to collect all of my favorite photo—old and new.

I don’t want my main Hubzilla feed to be about one or two interests (e.g., dogs or photography). From there, I can occasionally reshare from canine.cloud (Mastodon) and Pixelfed when I feel like it. I’ve developed a system that suits the way my mind is organized. YMMV.

• "I use diaspora* [...] because that's what my pod is running" is a tautology, not an explanation. If it's your pod, then why did you choose to install diaspora* and not one of the others? If it's not your pod, then why did you choose to sign up on that one?

I apologize for my hasty message. You are right. I should have explained myself. It’s my pod and I chose to operat a diaspora* pod for the reasons I listed for why I like diaspora*. Also, I don’t care for php, which I think is what Friendica is built on. I could be wrong. I found the support community for podmins to be very helpful in the past, and that was another factor. I guess it boils down to familiarity. Although this pod is newer, I operate another pod that has been around for a while, which also runs diaspora*. I suppose it would be nice to run instances of the other platforms, I have not felt compelled to do so at this point.

• "I don't have much need of bells or whistles or groups." OK, that I can appreciate; use the software that gives you the feature set you need.

Yeah, I guess tris is the main thing for me. Or one of the main things.

• "diaspora* means something." Please explain. I mean, I know what the word "disapora" means, but that's obviously not what you meant. (And please, if you could, try to be a little less haughty and patronizing when you do; kthxbai.)

Sorry I came across that way. I had a long day yesterday and should have waited to post my message until a time when I could have been more thoughtful. I know it’s kind of silly, but I find it easier to explain diaspora* to people because of the dandelion metaphor. I guess it applies to other platforms.

Anyway, I guess it all boils down to familiarity and feeling that diaspora* works for me because it meets my simple needs.

Best,
A.

Discussions like this one reveal several preferences, issues or even glitches different platforms may have. Spiced up by some tech-savvy participants they are the base for my ongoing but not yet finalized decision making about which platform I'll eventually choose.

Thank you, y'all!

Now, why am I on a d* pod for the time being?

• I even tried Friendica first but moved into here as "interim home". Great Friendica features, but a little clumsy on mobile, expecially when it comes to advanced formatting. -> Fr 1 : d* 2
• Being a former G+er, I truly miss communities. They were a perfect collaboration platform for several projects. Sure, I joined hobbyists comms as well, but collaboration really stood out. Friendica forums may not replace them but forum-wise better than nothing. -> Fr 1 : rest of Fediverse 0
• Test server(s): tryfriendica.de is open for a week. The Hubzilla test server for 10 or so minutes. Is there even a diaspora* test server? -> Fr 2 : rest of Fediverse 1 : d* 0
• Diaspora* is well-known, other platforms may appear more techy if not intimidating (e.g. feature-rich Hubzilla) -> rest of Fediverse 1 : d* 2
• Some acquaintances joined d* for the ease of use as well as the mass migration effects -> d* 1 : rest 0
• If I had known more about the technology behind things (I might have decided in kind of a rush) I probably would have been more relaxed and would have trusted more in protocols' capabilities -> 0 : 0, dead race

If I add things up:
Friendica 4 points (though still my favorite due to !forums)
Diaspora* 5 points (I'm surprised it won the race)
Rest of Fediverse 2 points (not enough so far to dive into Hubzilla)

So, d* will probably be it until I'll have learned enough about Hubzilla to set up my own server. And d* is a heck of a learning platform, thanks to you guys!

@Alexander Unfortunately desktop version won't help, even after reloading the site: no autocomplete.

@alysonsee Yes, I remember Friendzilla being even more responsive on mobile with the autocompletion than d* on desktop. Good to learn that Hubzilla works that way as well.

I'm back on a "real" desktop now, glad to jot down some thoughts on the desktop/mobile issue and UX in general:

During another in-depth conversation I had the chance to learn from a dev team insider (or even member) that for the time being they have no dedicated designer for d*, therefore ui/ux issues tend to get postponed. Which is a bummer, because

• if there is a mobile version of any site given, it should clearly state somewhere whether/how much features are simplified or limited.
• as long as the mobile d* site won't provide core features like @ mentions, the devolopment of any app is in vain
• drilled down to the raw user experience: for a halfway decent legibility on a smartphone display in "desktop" mode,
  • I'd need to crank up font size for the whole browser to about 400% if I want to use it in portrait mode.
  • even in landscape mode it's hardly legible. In addition, the keyboard gets in one's way. I find it much more comfortable to type in portrait mode.
  • -> all that combined results in a constant tilt left, tilt right, close to being just unusable due to font settings. Plus the "mobile mobile" version being unusable due to reserved features... wait, what?

Referring to aforementioned conversation again, the person admitted that some long-time-users and devs might have become blind to shortcomings in user-centric topics. I wonder whether they even use devices with displays smaller than 11 inches - more than once I've read here from users who proudly claim not to own a smartphone

@Trevor Schadt So, I obviously need to update my ranking points:

D* just lost 2 points, Friendica earned one back, Hubzilla as my personal "rest of Fediverse" gained one as well

which results in...

Friendica 5 points (feels closer to my initial, yet very subjective assumptions)
Diaspora* 3 points (makes me think...)
Rest of Fediverse 3 points (as in Hubzilla, biased as well - it's getting time to have a closer look!)