^ so with Diaspora I will be able to stalk people on FB without having an actual FB account?

If that's really gonna happen then I'm definitely going to start using it, but I can't see how, for instance, it will be possible to get information about FB users without having an FB account and why FB would co-operate with Diaspora and risk losing potential users.

Unless Diaspora gets a credible userbase and FB thinks it will be better to co-operate.

Or is there something I'm missing?

If that's really gonna happen then I'm definitely going to start using it, but I can't see how, for instance, it will be possible to get information about FB users without having an FB account and why FB would co-operate with Diaspora and risk losing potential users.

Unless Diaspora gets a credible userbase and FB thinks it will be better to co-operate.

Or is there something I'm missing?

I think you're right. If you don't have a Facebook account, you're not going to be able to communicate with people on Facebook. If you do have an account, Diaspora can use Facebook's APIs to access the data so you don't have to go through Facebook itself. But everything you do will still show up on Facebook.

Same for other networks of course, if Diaspora provides integration for that.

Diaspora will get interesting when people ditch Facebook and Twitter and whatnot, and start using Diaspora only. It'll be a while.

This is very interesting to me!

I've recently been trying to remove as much data from my profile on FB as possible, without actually deleting my account. It's only now that I realise how much info they store, and with no real way of controlling it.

I would sign up to this for sure.

Have you stopped using FB? I noticed your page is completely blank!

For those still interested...

Some months ago, Diaspora went "live". The source code was published and some members of the mailing list were sent invitations to create an account. Not a lot though.

Thank God for open source - plenty of other folks set up "pods", "hubs", "seeds", whatever they call them, for you to sign up for. There's a nice little list here.

It doesn't matter which server you sign up to, they all work together. So if I'm on A and you're on B, we can still be friends and see each other's profiles and share stuff and whatever else these things do.

Please note that this is "alpha" software, which means it's several development stages away from being "finished" so features may be missing or broken or subject to change. But things are happening and they want you to sign up! (And ditch Facebook). Because I only have 1 friend so far.


I'm biert@diasp.eu

[Keeker]

Yeah.. sad to say, I'm his only friend and he's my only friend so far.
wendyg62@diasp.eu

Yeah.. sad to say, I'm his only friend and he's my only friend so far.
wendyg62@diasp.eu

This is true and pathetic.

[Keeker]

Yeah.. sad to say, I'm his only friend and he's my only friend so far.
wendyg62@diasp.eu

This is true and pathetic.

Don't call me pathetic.

Some more people need to try this. Come on, you know you want to!