Hello from Diaspora*

Hi Steemit! I'm from Diaspora, that network famous for having long died (We haven't.^1,2,3 We're still talking. In fact, lately about you). Since our fateful, $200K-winning Kickstarter campaign, we were touted as a Facebook killer because of our decentralized "pod" structure. We've all seen this chart, right?

Well, Diaspora (along with Friendica, Friendica Red, Libtertree, and an increasingly numerous host of other platforms) was that picture in the middle there. You could set up your own pod, get some accounts rolling on it, and then connect to the overall decentralized ecosystem without any middleman. And that was just beautiful. That was... six years ago. But before I can continue this tale, I need to spill some ink on how a scene happens. First, some obligatory reading on the "birth of cool". The five minutes you spend there will be fuller of eureka moments than grad school.

... all read up? Good. Welcome back. Diaspora, Esperanto, the Dvorak keyboard, Bitcoin, yoyos, K-pop, twerking, planking, the Harlem shake, Facebook, Twitter... and now you guys. Most subcultures reel into and out of existence in the blink of an eye. Striving for relevancy results in a sudden sucky experience on its attainment, on its adoption by the masses, paired with a solid cash-out for select head honchos. Popularity strangles them and alpha testers and geeks move on trying to find another place where people are kind and interesting and smart again... with the quiet exception of a lucky few that the world passes by.

Where we're at

Diaspora is one of these lucky ones. I joined to avoid a future like that pictured, taking an active part in building a more autonomous society... but ended up staying because of just how much I learned! We often talk of how cool it is that our space is not overrun with muggles, how we're more a reflective library than a bustling bus stop, a humming workshop than a clanging marketplace. People come to us to indulge in wacky (and often not-so-wacky) conspiracy theories, to get tips on neat projects, to share resources for building a better world, to talk about how we're moving forward as a species and whether there isn't something was can personally to add to our collective momentum. In short: to examine the human condition. And we're not alone in our happy ecosystem, there are other networks out there just like ours. The difference with us is we were decentralized right from the get-go... and this was one of the key insurmountable speed bumps that made us not worth the world's while.

The average person literally could not fathom how a decentralized social network could possibly work. "But where do I sign up then?" was one of the biggest issues staving off our potential bum-rush. And so people returned to grazing their streams, with a few anti-Facebook Facebook groups popping up with names like "Join International Facebook Quitting Days". I'll let you fill in how that went, but here's a hint.

Technically however, we're still miles behind. We're ahead only in offering everyone a free voice who can to set up their own pod. Not perfect, but definitely a direction I'd like to see social networking keep moving in. There is a pretty well-funded project to enable downloading accounts, but honestly, after the first $200K fizzled out I don't have much hope for this to really get off the ground anytime soon. Some pods have chat functionality, harnessing XMPP, but I feel the work required here to make this feature ubiquitous may result in another fizzle, as with the video chat rumours of 2011. But, and I've been saying this for six years now, even if Diaspora doesn't move forward technically for me it is already a formidable win for decentralization and democracy, and a marvellous resource. I won't be quitting it anytime soon <3.

Where you're at

I think you're ahead. Miles ahead. The blockchain wasn't around when the Diaspora devs decided to build on Ruby. Using this technology to properly decentralize journalism electrifies me! I'd been following DATT/Yours since I first discovered them months ago... but they seem to be slow to start and it looks like Steemit may have beaten them to the punch. I have written posts on social networking for international journals and blogs (some even being translated for Spanish and German audiences), not to mention my own blog, but the fact that I'm posting this here first certainly says something. And, to be honest, I can't remember the last time I posted something novel on Diaspora, just because there is something that, for me, keeps that place feeling like a reading room and not a podium. On Steemit I really do feel that electric buzz that was omnipresent in the early days of Diaspora, that hope for a brighter tomorrow and that excitement revelling in an astounding now. And I absolutely love how you guys are currently navel-gazing. This is all a part of being the first wave of fans with any new scene, and it is wonderful!

However, there is an immediate dark side I felt almost from my first days here: you've already got a stampede of mops and sociopaths looking this way. This sudden monetary value is what draws them in, and the dot-coms of the past have taught anyone who reads anything about econ the importance of diving into a market when it's still fresh (and scuttling ship the moment things go awry).

The chat room is already full of posters begging for views, vying for those coveted top post spots. And indeed, one of the first posts I read on here was criticizing Steemit's already apparent power disparity (with several others about how its founder hopes to become the ruler of the world... Diaspora was full of very much the same in its early days). It will be fascinating watching you guys tackle these issues. I'm also curious how you're handling the inescapable NSFW issue that will certainly pop up, if it hasn't already, as well as the issue of content ownership. What's preventing me from publishing something that is not mine, and getting paid for it? Sure, the flipside is I am exposing novel content to users who very well could have never had access to it... interesting conversations surrounding ethics and the true definition of value, at the very least.

Still, I remain hopeful and happy that this is another Next Big Thing in what looks like a whole new approach to blogging. The tremendously positive impacts a site like this can have on journalism and whistle-blowing just blows my mind. These people would suddenly be on the direct, immediate receiving end of their risks and sacrifices! They could then maybe afford legal counsel, traveling to safe zones, purchasing better equipment with which to have their voices heard... wow. Imagine an anonymous, decentralized, blockchain-based Wikileaks or news network, for example!

Wrapping up, let's leave on a funny note. Do you guys have hashtags on here? I hope so, because in this case, #pigeons. Let's break journalistic tradition!