Social networking the FOSS way with Diaspora

Quality over Quantity

A final word on this social network is that, beyond the code, Diaspora users in the nature of things tend to be more technically competent and privacy conscious. This means that there is a distinct lack of pictures of small animals, encouragements to copy/paste status updates, or dubious videos of celebrities.

Older users may remember the early days of the Internet when a certain degree of effort and knowledge was mandatory to get online. All that extra effort meant people didn't go to the trouble to post unless they had something important to say. This is also an important rejoinder to critics who may compare Diaspora's relatively miniscule user base of 1 million users to Facebook's one billion. Quality trumps quantity every time.

Infos

  1. Marauder's Map: https://github.com/arank/marauders-map
  2. What names are allowed on Facebook?: https://www.facebook.com/help/112146705538576?helpref=faq_content
  3. 7 Controversial ways Facebook has used your data: http://time.com/4695/7-controversial-ways-facebook-has-used-your-data/
  4. Andrew Lewis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andlewis/status/24380177712
  5. Diaspora Foundation: https://diasporafoundation.org/
  6. FSSN: http://freesoftwaresupport.org/
  7. Diaspora Wiki: https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Choosing_a_pod#Why_do_I_need_to_choose_a_pod.3F
  8. Pod Uptime: https://podupti.me/?advancedview=true
  9. Framasphere: https://framasphere.org/
  10. Diaspora Wiki: https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_users#What_do_the_tags_on_my_public_profile_do.3F
  11. Diaspora Foundation: https://diasporafoundation.org/about#privacy
  12. Diaspora Wiki: https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_users#How_do_I_use_the_search_box_to_find_particular_individuals.3F
  13. Diaspora Wiki https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation
  14. Diaspora Foundation – Installation https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation/Debian/Jessie
  15. Diaspora Foundation – Installation https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation/Debian/Jessie
  16. Diaspora Wiki – How we communicate https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/How_we_communicate#IRC
  17. Islamic State fighters on Diaspora https://blog.diasporafoundation.org/4-islamic-state-fighters-on-diaspora
  18. Diaspora Foundation – FAQ for Pod Maintainers: https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_pod_maintainers#Can_I_add_advertisements_to_my_pod.3F
  19. GitHub: https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues/7147
  20. Diaspora Wiki – Integration/Chat: https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Integration/Chat#Configuration

The Author

Nate Drake is a freelance journalist specializing in cybersecurity and retro tech.

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