@dennisschubert I think it’s worth mentioning that none of us really have to deal with JoinDiaspora if nobody wants to deal with it. I’m sure that, as a community member himself, Maxwell probably wouldn’t mind handling pod upkeep. I’ve discussed the idea of closing registrations on JD, with a proper message and link referring to poduptime and Installation guides for new prospective users of Diaspora. Maxwell’s mentioned that he’s willing to close off registrations so that users will disperse more evenly between pods, or even set up their own if they’d like.
I agree that making joindiaspora such a big focus was a misstep, but that is in the past. The reality is, no matter which way we look at it, joindiaspora is there, and until we get the proper capability for users to export / import into another pod, a majority of those users will stay on joindiaspora.
In regards to crowdfunding: I don’t think it’s so much that we desperately need money, so much that it would be very convenient for the project to have should a need to use funds ever arise. Is it premature to have in place right this second?
Maybe, and tbh I’d be totally fine with holding off on it if you and others are convinced that the time is not right. I’m open to taking our time with it, discussing specifically what we would do with such funds if we had them, and coming up with a better game plan. Really, in a lot of ways, I think the project is doing just fine without such a fundraiser right now. Look how far we’ve gotten already. I myself have about 3 years worth of posts there; I certainly don’t want to have to start all over on a new pod.
However, and this cannot be understated: with end users reacting to the state of centralized social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in light of scandals like PRISM, a decentralized communication tool like Diaspora may be more necessary and relevant to those who value their privacy than ever before. Is Diaspora perfect? No, but for many people, it’s “good enough”.