@bry8star i completely agree. Do you want to help us with this task ?
@jasonrobinson Yeah, I’ll put the theme files in a repo. Drupal builds largely on data and ways to display it, so the templates are all implemented using the Views system, and copyediting is done on the site itself. Still, I’ll happily welcome improvements to fix bugs or ugly code in the design. I’ll let you know when it’s up.
@bry8star Very well spoken. Documentation is a situation that is beginning to improve over time for the project. It’s come a long way, but it needs to be improved. The new wiki we’re putting together is a really great start.
(my own current understanding/opinion is…)
obviously those mentioned steps/stages/tasks will have to carried-out/executed-by multiple members, those will be collaborative community work, AND core level developers/maintainers/members need to take the first step & initial initiative(s). then others will start to populate further & try to fit into their area of expertise. i’m not a “Diaspora” developer, so i can only come into it some stages later.
if from the beginning those mentioned procedures are not maintained & not followed, then later (in future) it will become even more harder to implement, various functions/sections (of software) will become more hard to understand (for new/mid-level programmer). Afaik/afaiu its not even v1.00. If mentioned steps are not followed, then as a result (or, as a CONSEQUENCE over time), all primary functions/things will be understood only by the handful of few developers only, rest of the developer community will be lost, (or will remain) or will be forced to remain in building (or busy with) developing themes/skins/plugins/buttons/small-apps/etc only or limited functions.
If that is what you want & expect, then remain unchanged,
and project will forward at the speed at it is going or more or less,
and if really want to attract more developers & users, then try a newer way, and see if that can generate better results.
I’m not implicating/suggesting core components will be allowed to change without any scrutiny … i’m suggesting/requesting for ANY (and ALL) codes to become easily understood, so that it helps developing other dependent & related components.
And, many will not TRUST closed source codes, or UNEXPLAINED codes/sources, or remote-API based solutions, which remains in the hand of UN-TRUSTWORTHY hands or remains in remote servers, and where others have no clue of what is/are happening there.
So my suggestion is please make sure that source-code is VERY very easily understood, so to gain “more” trust-worthiness, (and trustful source-code will bring more trust to their creators in turn), AND to make it “easily-understood” for helping further in development process with faster pace of adoption.
if same thing/problem/code is explained by multiple different types of teacher/person, with multiple style, then different types of users/developers “gets” ( / understands) it even more, thus also helps in development process even more.
( personally I would not definitely go on or stay with or like a place/software/community where un-explained or un-ethical or un-fair or un-balanced stuff are happening ).
yes, wiki is great, THANKS, also thanks for the grassroots linked page (definitely needs to be shine-up much further, and accessible from a easily clickable place from home/start page), ( i did not expect to get instruction on MacOS on Wiki ). I can already see the careful touch in various level which are coming in my short-sited 2 eyes only, defintely you all have put-into your efforts into far more areas. 
more is definitely need to be done.
iOS (iPhone/iPad) , Android and WindowsPhone app or mobile browser based solution(s) must be documented in detail & if not exist then developed as soon as possible to reach vast amount of user-base who are switching into that trend.
Things which are not present in facebook, twitter, or not well-developed … such needs to be added here, showcased, publicized to attract a portion of users to create at least another account in Diaspora.
Calendar based event-driven app, various news-feed related app, etc need to be available. there must be more ideas to attract more users, and developers.
I agree with you except for the iOS / Android app. We are working on the mobile site, which work on all platform. Dev an app is just loosing our time right now. Plus, Mozilla comes with the open web apps, which are already integrated on Android and every desktop OS (everywhere where firefox is) and we hope the other browsers will follow us, so you won’t need to dev an app for a website anymore.
i’m not a developer at all, but the list Sean did is the best way.
as an old diaspora user i remind you that there was a “diaspora community video trailer” you can check some videos here: http://j.mp/TlOqJZ , we need also future video made by professional video makers that show cool diaspora features like facebook and google do.
sorry for my bad english
(just to keep fulfilling the role of prickly dev’s advocate =P)
@bry8star thanks very much for your comment, definitely important to focus on how easily someone new can understand the code. However, I very strongly believe we need to find a balance, there are many things worse than uncommented code, some things I would like people to remember :
As well as functionality, every comment must be maintained, I have never seen a project where the comments were kept up-to-date and old comments are more confusing than no comments
clear code is the goal (<3 ruby for this). It is much better to have code that is clear on its own than to have confusing code with lots of comments.
So I’m mostly against comments, unless something exceptional is happening. If I am writing JS, I will not include a comment on how a standard JS function works, or a BackBone function, or jQuery, but I will comment an unusual / strange use of a certain function.
I think everyone has their own opinions on this and as long as we (meaning anyone interested in this topic) watch and participate on github we’ll find a good balance. I completely agree that right now we should move towards more comments and clearer code. =)
Also, I for one would be delighted to re-write / comment / otherwise improve any code that someone thinks is unclear or confusing. Can’t speak for everyone, but I think it would be appropriate to make issues on github for specific areas that need clean-up. Otherwise I’ll keep trying to fix anything I see =)
i was indicating/pointing toward adding detail ( and very easy to understand ) “comments” / “notes” etc related to each component/object/class/variable/function/etc, … what’s doing what, what type of variable/object is/are expected, and what type of object is/are returned, etc ( things which need to be shown in “comment”/“notes” areas, were already mentioned in my previous post )
… ( i was ) not indicating that developer(s) would/should have to start to teach/explain Ruby code/base programming’s conventions itself. ( But if some developer(s) chooses/starts to do so, that is not bad either ).
(my own opinion is), a few lines of short note at the top/beginning of a long series of codes/page with developer’s copyright information, is/are not “well” explained.
Codes should accompany notes which explains with human-understandable languages.
Something seems/appears to be very easy or self-explaining to a developer does not mean it will be automatically understood by most others.
Color of comments/notes remains different than codes, so “comments”/“notes” are not an obstacle for experienced developers.
If code gets changed, only then “comment”/“notes” area should be changed/updated, to reflect what will happen from now on after that new modification. Previous notes shouldn’t be erased completely, just modified/updated in necessary areas.
And adding “date-UTC-time” at the end of a “comment”/“note” or adding “coder-name-date-utc-time” is a good idea as well.
In fact, i prefer to see the coder’s name & date & time … who & when modified, even if its one single line of code.
anyway, which ever is better in the long run, for keeping clarity of the code, and also well explained, should be carried-out.
If those are not done, then it will remain un-explained, a new dev (developer) or a dev from another area of diaspora software will not properly understand another coder’s code, so their own code will be more buggy, and more time will be consumed, and such developer will remain limited (for longer time) in his/her ability/skill.
( i should stop talking on these area, i have added too much useless-garbage here, sorry ).
someone ( well versed and well knowledgeable in Social Network related techs/trends and ) not a member of “Diaspora” should update the short notes mentioned in below wikipedia pages, with better words, so users can have more/better ( & up-to-date) knowledge on “Diaspora” and that should encourage interested user to join in diaspora :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_social_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(software)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
( i jonied to your freenode irc channel after reading the short notes, and i was using Ctrl+F (find) for “privacy”, then Jason invited me here ).
Excellent point about wikipedia - anyone?
That’s a good idea. I’m happy to have a go at this, as have some experience editing Wikipedia articles, although I may need help with technical details.
Hey! Found a Github site called Code Triage, can be used by anyone to subscribe to new issues for any Github project. No need for programming skills to triage bugs.
So if you want to help triage Diaspora* issues - subscribe here for your daily dose!
http://www.codetriage.com/diaspora/diaspora
@seantilleycommunitymanager - there is another GitHub linked site called Contrib Hub which lists projects needing help. Could you or someone who has access to the ‘diaspora’ official account go there and register Diaspora* as needing help? You need to sign in and then click ‘need help’ on the diaspora repo from your profile - needs to be done with the diaspora account.
Got tipped about this site by a guy on my Eliademy course
Looks like ContribHub doesn’t yet show a user’s organizations. 
Oh yeah it’s under an organization 
Oh well, need to keep it in mind
Jason, I think the course you are running is the best thing I’ve seen so far to promote greater involvement. I need to see that D* is really alive and thriving and that I can become part of a community. In order to have community, deep, wide, and inclusive conversations have to happen. Your course is a sparking place for that type of conversation that goes beyond Loomio. As a newb potential contributor, I need to see and interact with other real people. I need to know where we are at, what others are thinking/doing, and where this might go in order to know whether it’s worth my investment and whether my investment will be valued.
I really think that a conference or unconference would be of immense value sometime in the coming months!
Just wanted to chime in here and vote again for cleaning up the code base. Talking with some other Ruby developers, they want to work on Diaspora but really just don’t like the way the codebase looks. Plus the “code critics” of the internet have already tarnished the name. To slap Ruby devs in the face a little bit, we need to be documenting just how we’re solving some of the more interesting problems of Diaspora. Sean used to blog a little bit, and I’ve been writing some articles on http://psychedeli.ca, but none about D*.
I, as well as others, should be using the mouthpiece we’ve set up as our blogs (which may or may not have a large reach) to begin evangelizing Diaspora and getting other devs interested in the project. The more people we have contributing CODE (honestly we have more than enough “idea guys” around here already…), the better our codebase will become, naturally.
It’s also worth noting that if you’d like to do some evangelizing, be sure to also talk about the things you’re working on. I would love to either aggregate your blogs on our Planet, or alternatively provide hosted blogs for Diaspora developers on the Foundation site.