What is Diaspora?

[paul sutton]

Diaspora is currently a topic thread on the Devon and Cornwall GNU / Linux user group mailing list,  a very good point has just been raised.


Take this link to the sign up page

https://m.ars.is/users/sign_up?invite[token]=ff99697dbacb

This page expects end users to know what they are signing up to,  but there is nothing about this on the website,

A few comments from the list

Always love a website that wants you to sign-up for something without
giving any clue at all what is behind the log-in screen ;]

and a second comment

Opened site. closed site. My instant reaction.
No given data on what is in/on-site or involved.
Brilliant honeytrap!


WHile I appreciate podmins have control over the front page and have the freedom to do this, if lack of information is going to hider take up, then it needs to be addressed. If we are going to get more users surely we need to explain (and not assume people know) what diaspora is all about.   A simple about link about what the site is about would be most useful

a good example is actually with the one I used to sign up

https://joindiaspora.com/users/sign_in

it has a link to the diaspora foundation website.

Perhaps we should have a general policy somewhere that ensures any pod has some basic information or a link to basic information,  what you need to remember is people are told not to sign in to a website they are not sure about,  the first link throws up what the heck is this,   


Hope these comments are useful,  

Paul

[Robby O'Connor]

Gee when I sign up for things, I do basic research...2 second google search will bring up information on it.

--Rob
Sent from my cell, please excuse any typos.

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[paul sutton]

Appreciate that but in this case it seems people have not done that, or take the view what is this, don't bother with it,    I do the same or would do the same,  not everyone is that confident with computers,    However maybe that is a good thing as it keeps the less motivated off Diaspora.

I was just commenting here based on the 2 comments made on the mailing list and making a suggestion, but yeah google is fine, ,  it seems some people are not prepared to google or research something. 


Paul

[Robby O'Connor]

Not my problem

--Rob
Sent from my cell, please excuse any typos.

[Robby O'Connor]

Sorry for my brief and rather condescending remarks...you hit on a major pet peeve of mine...laziness us no excuse for stupid.

--Rob
Sent from my cell, please excuse any typos.

[paul sutton]

No problem

I agree, people should google things,  but maybe they take the view that if you (in this case a pod admin) can't be bothered to spoon feed me information then I can't be bothered to search for something.    In which case maybe diaspora is not for them.

Paul

[Jason Robinson]

Hi Paul,

The things you describe are exactly the things that are seen all the time when spreading news about diaspora* on the project official Facebook and Twitter accounts. Lots of people always complaining that signing up is too difficult.

While one can think of this as a nice filter ;), still there is a lot here we could improve on. Like having a project pod chooser wizard to filter users globally to participating or just known pods with open signups. Also improving the default project shipped sign-up page with some information would be nice - currently it doesn't say anything at all what the place is.

Anyone can help with this, not even a lot of ruby skills needed! Some info here for those wanting to contribute: https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/An_introduction_to_the_Diaspora_source

Also one important thing is to spread diaspora*. The more users talk about it, the more people will know about it!

Br,
Jason