@Zer0Rank You can forget diaspora* for two reasons.

One, it isn't connected to most of the Fediverse. Friendica, Hubzilla and Socialhome have support for diaspora*'s own protocol, to this day, diaspora* refuses to adopt ActivityPub. So it can't connect to anything else like Mastodon.

Two, it looks like it's going under anyway. At the end of December, multiple big pods were shut down. According to some statistics, diaspora* lost more half of its users within a few days.

Apart from this, while diaspora* may have the better UI, it won't offer you nearly the features you'll even find on Friendica, much less its descendants.

At the end of the day, what could be useful for you depends on what you need, for Friendica is not the only alternative to Facebook and diaspora*; it's just the only one that's the talk of the town. There's also Hubzilla from 2015 which the vast majority of the Fediverse has never heard of, and there's officially nameless (streams), the newest of the bunch from 2021, which is almost entirely unknown outside of Hubzilla, but still worth a look.

First things first: All three are part of the Fediverse all the same. All three support ActivityPub, only that you'll first have to activate it on your new Hubzilla channel.

So the first question is: Do you absolutely need a native mobile app? Because that's only available for Friendica. Hubzilla and (streams) can be installed as Progressive Web Apps if your device supports it, but some people find that too complicated and/or need a native mobile UI and/or need something they can pull from an app store.

But if you're a desktop user, or if you aren't afraid of using a Web interface (which adapts well to mobile) on a mobile device, either in a browser or as a PWA, the other two may be worth a look.

If you don't mind a little bit more of a learning curve, if you prefer Markdown or HTML for formatting over BBcode, if you'd like to have a WebDAV file server, a CalDAV calendar server and a CardDAV addressbook server along with your Facebook alternative, if you want fine-grained control over who is permitted to do what, and if you're at least looking forward to securing your channel against server shutdown with nomadic identity, then (streams) may be something for you.

You won't find it on any instance lists; it's intentionally being kept away from them. But there are currently only two public, open-registration instances that I could recommend. One, in the USA, is Rumbly, run by @Waitman Gobble. The other one, in Hungary, is Nomád, run by @Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ or rather @Der Pepe (nomád) ⁂ ⚝ who also has two Hubzilla hubs. Both instances are probably very silent now, especially Nomád where Pepe is the only user. But if I get more people to join them, this may change.

If you want another look from a guest's point of view, feel free to check my two (streams) channels (I got the account by invite): @Jupiter Rowland's (streams) outlet uses the day mode of the Fresh theme, @Jupiter's Fedi-Memes on (streams) uses its night mode.

Well, and if you aren't afraid of an even steeper learning curve and an even more complex UI, if you don't mind BBcode, if you still want fine-grained permission controls, if you want nomadic identity now, if you think you can need diaspora* connectivity, if you want to be able to subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds, or if you want extra CMS-like features (articles, cards, wikis, even webpages), Hubzilla may be more to your liking.

In addition to the hubs listed on FediDB and Fediverse Observer (10.0.6 is the current stable and recommended version), @Scott M. Stolz is working on launching a number of new US-based hubs.

Last but not least, the three support groups:

• @Friendica Support for Friendica
• @Hubzilla Support Forum for Hubzilla
• @Streams for (streams)

And two private Friendica groups for and about the Facebook exodus which can also be joined from Hubzilla and (streams), but AFAIK not from Mastodon:

• @Facebook Refugees
• @Replace Facebook Community

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Facebook #FacebookAlternative #diaspora* #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams)