Re- “Second”
This reminds much of what was being discussed here: Splash screen for Grandparents and nontechnical users
Diaspora is still overly complicated for the average user. Diaspora will not make headway against the fB’s of the world until the barriers for entry are eased.
I know I’m old when I say this, but this is very similar to the old dial-up bulletin boards (BBSes) when I was younger. The process of discovering and getting signed into BBSes provided a large hurdle for the average user - It wasn’t until AOL simplified the process that you had mass adoption. (Easy account creation, easy local dial-up number location process, etc.) Obviously a sh!t-ton of marketing and free CDs by the gazillions helped.
I’m still a proponent of some sort of unified splash-screen landing zone for account creation and general logging in. This needs to include a simplified, auto-selection process for pods.
Diaspora itself isn’t difficult - But the average user doesn’t care about what’s going on under the hood. (as much as they should care, they aren’t going to. So deal with it and move on.)
Finally, and I know this is going to sound like heresy to some, but I think Diaspora needs a new name and identity. It needs to be something catchy, friendly, and marketable. “Diaspora” sounds more like a disease than a social network. Get experienced marketing people involved and don’t let us geeks/nerds make the final decision on a new identity.
I’m now going to duck and run for temporary cover.
./s4z