diaspora*
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
diaspora* is not a website but a piece of software that anyone can install on their own server. Such a server is called a "pod". The project describes the arrangement plainly: there is no central node, pods around the world hold the data of whoever signed up on them and talk to each other, so you can register on any of them (the "How does diaspora* work?" section).
From this follows what matters most for this guide: diaspora* has no owner, no company, no single set of rules and no monetization in the usual sense. This is not a gap in our research — it is how the network is built. The code is published on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 licence, the repository was created on 15 September 2010, and the latest release, 0.9.1.0, is dated 7 April 2026 (the diaspora/diaspora repository). The terms you agree to are written by the administrator of the particular pod, not by the project. Your address on the network looks like name@pod.domain and works across pod boundaries.
Who's here
There is no single audience figure, and there cannot be one: nobody is counting. The project itself sends you to a third-party directory for the list of servers (the home page).
That directory as of 28 July 2026 lists 58 diaspora* servers, 25 of them hosted in Germany — the largest share, followed by France and the United States with four each. The numbers belong to Fediverse Observer, not to the project: it is an independent aggregator that polls the pods. Registration is not open everywhere; on many pods it is closed.
The project's site switches between roughly three dozen locales — from Afrikaans and Esperanto to Russian, Tamil and Chinese (the switcher on the home page). The language of any given pod depends on its own settings.
Getting started
The three-step sequence is described on the project home page: pick a pod, register on it, start following tags. The project's advice is to choose a pod that is smaller, closer to you, or in a country whose data protection regime suits you. You can also run your own: the FAQ for pod maintainers recommends at least 1 GB of memory even for a small pod, says shared hosting will not do, and notes that only port 443 needs to be exposed.
What the pod administrator decides rather than the project (all of it from the example configuration): whether registration is open (enable_registrations, on by default); whether a captcha is shown (on by default); whether there is a terms-of-service document (off by default, though a template with jurisdiction and minimum-age settings is built in); how many invitations an invite link grants (25 by default); whether inactive accounts are deleted (the option is off, with a default value of 730 days).
The practical takeaway: check the terms page of your chosen pod before you register. The network has no common agreement.
What you can publish
The maximum post length is 65,535 characters (FAQ for users). Markup is Markdown; images are inserted with the camera button, and in comments via a markdown construct pointing at a link. Video and audio are embedded by pasting an ordinary link through oEmbed — the FAQ names YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and Flickr (same source).
Addressing is handled through "aspects" — contact groups you create yourself; a post goes either to the aspects you pick or out publicly. Of the social mechanics, the project lists hashtags, @ mentions, resharing and the "heart" (the section on aspects and features).
What is forbidden depends on the pod: the project sets no content rules of its own.
How to grow
There is no algorithmic feed. There is a single visibility mechanism — public posts and hashtags: the project explicitly advises newcomers to start by following tags and to introduce themselves with a public post tagged #newhere (the home page).
Federation has an important limitation that the project describes honestly: a pod only knows about the posts that reached it — because the author is local, because someone local follows them, or because the post was reshared. Tags are not broadcast to every pod, so the "followed tags" stream on a small pod shows noticeably less than on a large one (FAQ for pod maintainers). The size and connectedness of your pod directly affect whether you are seen.
The network has no ad manager. Crossposting to external services used to exist, but in the not-yet-released version Twitter, Tumblr and WordPress have been removed from the code (Changelog).
Path to monetization
There are no creator payouts: there is nobody to pay you — no company, no ad revenue, no common treasury. The project sets itself against the advertising model and states that it does not use data for anything except connecting people (the privacy section).
Money appears only at the level of an individual pod. The configuration includes a PayPal donations block — an administrator can switch on a button and collect money for running the server (example configuration). Advertising on a pod is not forbidden: asked directly whether one may add ads to one's own pod, the FAQ for pod maintainers answers that no rules prohibit it.
You can earn here only in the way you would earn on your own website: your own product, your own subscription, your own donations. The network provides no payout infrastructure.
Tools and automation
An official API has existed since version 0.9.0: the release notes announce official support for applications built on the API and point to separate documentation for instructions (Changelog).
The API documentation describes JSON-only exchange, GUID identifiers, ISO 8601 timestamps and pagination via the Link header. The sections are: aspects, comments, contacts, conversations, likes, notifications, photos, post interactions, posts, reshares, search, streams, tag followings, users. Authorization is OpenID Connect on top of OAuth 2.0 with access scopes: the mandatory openid, the always-granted public:read, then contacts:read, contacts:modify, conversations, interactions, notifications and others; a request without the required scope returns 403 (the scopes page).
An important caveat: the header of the documentation still says it describes the branch for release 0.8.0.0 and that the API is "not stable yet", whereas the Changelog announces official support from 0.9.0. We record the discrepancy rather than resolve it.
The project supports no mobile apps: there is no official app, third-party ones are used at your own risk, and the recommended way to use the network from a phone is the mobile version of the site in a browser (FAQ for users). For websites there are "share" buttons and OpenGraph support (FAQ for web developers).
Limits and rules
The code is under AGPLv3: if you modify the code of your pod, you are obliged to make the working source code available to your users. You cannot make an isolated pod — asked directly, the project answers "no", explaining that it is building one network rather than a set of separate communities; delivery of missed posts is retried three times at hourly intervals; moderation is done by moderators appointed by the administrator (FAQ for pod maintainers).
Privacy without illusions. Traffic between pods is encrypted, but storage on the pod is not, and the database administrator can read your profile and all your entries if they wish. Your posts and a copy of your profile are also stored on the pods of your contacts, where they are available to those administrators. Exporting your data and closing your account are done with buttons in the settings. Moving an account between pods, however, is described as not yet possible; given that the same FAQ links to a pod directory that has shut down, that statement is worth re-checking (FAQ for users).
Who it's for
diaspora* suits you if independence from a corporate platform matters and you are prepared for a small, unguaranteed reach: the network is measured in dozens of servers. Sensible use cases are a technical, private or activist community; your own pod as a channel nobody can take away from you; long-form text (65,535 characters is a rare luxury).
For commercial SMM in the usual sense the platform will not do: no advertising, no analytics, no algorithmic promotion, no creator payouts, and every pod has its own rules.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the network has no owner and no single operator: diaspora* is software that anyone installs on their own server (a "pod"); pods talk to each other, there is no central node
This is how the network is built, not a gap in the data
source, checked 2026-07-28
the source code is published on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 licence; the repository was created on 15 September 2010
Metadata of the diaspora/diaspora repository
source, checked 2026-07-28
the latest release as of the check date is 0.9.1.0, dated 7 April 2026
The repository's release list
source, checked 2026-07-28
a user's address on the network takes the form name@pod.domain and works across pod boundaries
The "How does diaspora* work?" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
the Fediverse Observer directory that the project itself links to lists 58 diaspora* servers; 25 of them are hosted in Germany, 4 each in France and the United States
The figures belong to Fediverse Observer, a third-party aggregator, not to the project
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
three steps: pick a pod, register on it, follow tags; the project recommends choosing a pod that is smaller, closer, or in a country with a data protection regime that suits you
The "Want to get started?" block
source, checked 2026-07-28
for your own pod at least 1 GB of memory is recommended even for a small installation; shared hosting will not do; only port 443 needs to be exposed
The "Installation Information" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
the pod administrator configures: whether registration is open (yes by default), the captcha (on by default), the terms of service (off by default, with a built-in template offering jurisdiction and minimum-age settings), the number of invitations per invite link (25 by default), automatic deletion of inactive accounts (off, default value 730 days)
The network has no common terms of service — the conditions are set by each pod
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
markup is Markdown; images are inserted with the camera button, and in comments via a markdown construct pointing at a link; video and audio are embedded through oEmbed (YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and Flickr are named)
The list of supported sites in the FAQ is not exhaustive
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
post addressing is set through "aspects" — contact groups the user creates themselves; the alternative is publishing publicly
The "All about aspects" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
there is no algorithmic feed; the visibility mechanism is public posts and hashtags
The project advises newcomers to follow tags and introduce themselves with a post tagged #newhere
source, checked 2026-07-28
tags are not broadcast to every pod: a pod only knows the posts that reached it (the author is local, someone local follows them, or the post was reshared), so the followed-tags stream on a small pod is poorer
The "Followed tags don't work on my pod" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
the network has no ad manager; at the same time there are no rules forbidding an administrator from adding advertising to their own pod
A direct answer to the question "Can I add advertisements to my pod?"
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the configuration includes a PayPal donations block: a pod administrator can switch the button on and collect money for running the server
The configuration.settings.paypal_donations section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
the maximum post length is 65,535 characters
FAQ for users, the "Posts and posting" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
delivery of posts a pod missed while it was unavailable is retried three times at hourly intervals
The answer to the question about missed federated posts
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
an isolated pod that does not talk to the rest of the network cannot be made — the project answers this question "no"
The project is building one network, not a set of separate communities
source, checked 2026-07-28
when modifying the code of their own pod, the administrator is obliged to make the working source code available to their users (AGPLv3)
The answer to the question "Can I modify the code?"
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
traffic between pods is encrypted, but data on the pod is stored unencrypted: the database administrator can read the profile and all entries; copies of posts and of the profile are also stored on contacts' pods
The "Account and data management" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
official support for applications built on the API was announced from version 0.9.0
The "API!" section in the description of release 0.9.0.0
source, checked 2026-07-28
the API documentation: JSON-only exchange, GUIDs as identifiers, ISO 8601 timestamps, pagination via the Link header; the sections are aspects, comments, contacts, conversations, likes, notifications, photos, post interactions, posts, reshares, search, streams, tag followings, users
As of the check date the documentation header still refers to release 0.8.0.0 and to the API being unstable — a discrepancy with the Changelog
source, checked 2026-07-28
authorization is OpenID Connect on top of OAuth 2.0; the openid scope is mandatory, public:read is always granted, then contacts:read, contacts:modify, conversations, interactions, notifications and others; a request without the required scope returns 403
The "Access scopes" page
source, checked 2026-07-28
there is no official mobile app; third-party ones are used at your own risk, and the recommended way from a phone is the mobile version of the site
The project deliberately does not name any third-party apps
source, checked 2026-07-28
for websites there are "share" buttons and OpenGraph support (og:url, og:image, og:title, og:type, og:description) since version 0.2.0.0
Using oEmbed requires being added to a whitelist
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the project site switches between roughly three dozen locales, including Russian
The language switcher in the footer of the home page
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: Western Europe · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions