diaspora* - the next 12 months

Diaspora is awesome! Just to get that out of the way ;)

But here is my opinion (for what its worth).

1. API - Requirement.
   Without any means of developing 3rd party apps for mobile and desktop, D* functionality is very limited. G+; Twitter; Fakebook... All simple to use, and easily navigable via a mobile platform.

2. Chat - Requirement.
   Inter Pod connectivity (read federation) is great, but communication is all important. Without the ability to instantly message/chat/voice/video, D* is akin to a microblogging platform. Its social, don't get me wrong, but other platforms are streaming ahead. D* is lagging, both developmentally and user uptake.

3. Ease of use - Requirement.
   While I understand the decision to use markdown in posts, it is hampering the abilities of new users. To most n00b's, Markdown is akin to programming. It looks like gobbledy gook to those who don't understand it. Also, it seems that the standard mantra is "Read the tutorials". That seems a little counter productive. It forces people to learn something foreign to them. While it makes D* a little more heavy, I personally would like to see something like a cut down version of TinyMCE implemented. It will cut down the learning curve by upwards of 70% (guestimate).

4. Pod Themes - Would be nice.
   Running a pod is great, but being able to give your pod the "Personal Touch" would be nice. Nothing too fancy, but changing the colour schemes and swapping icons here and there would give each pod a distinct "Flavour" just like Linux.

5. User Selectable Themes - Would be nice.
   Being able to personalize your experience is fun. It makes your account, truly your own. But I think limiting it to your profile page would be best, so as not to interfere with the rest of D*.

6. Blogging - Would be nice.
   Blogging is a great outlet for people. Having a user selectable "Public"/"Private" blog in place of the current activity view on a user profile would really be great. I know I would use it as an outlet for when i have news. :)

@starblessed

1. You can already access majority of D* functionality via API-like stuff. And I know what I'm saying.

2. Chat would be nice to have but I don't think it's priority. Direct messages will do for a while.

3. NO. Stop it NOW. Don't oversimplify/dumbify things just to please new users. Using Markdown is not a necessity but it's useful for more advanced users. BTW, what's wrong with little bit of learning/RT(F)T attitude? I think it's good to point people to resources with which they can educate themselves.

4. Pod themes? Why not user themes? (ProTip: look for Stylish Firefox addon).

5. You create your custom style. People see you D* page and see it styled. You see everything styled.

6. What's wrong with aspects? If you want limited/public/private functionality create Aspect called Private and add nobody to it.

@marekmarecki

1. Really. API-Like stuff. You might want to dig a little deeper. Look at most of the discussions on here. Almost half of them come back to the API.

2. I imagine your a programmer. Messages will do for us, but for new users, chat is a requirement.

3. I disagree wholeheartedly. If you want markdown, have it, but whats wrong with combining the two? Make it user selectible via the profile. My grandmother will never learn markdown, but has some small experience with Office, therefore TinyMCE or similar will be fine.

4. Stylish relies on the end user installing, and knowing how to use it. Not only that, but it also relies on FireFox and derivatives. What about the majority who are still using Chrome and IE?

@starblessed

1. I know they do. And I agree that a good API is a must-have. (API-like hacks are not as good as a real solution so point for you).

2. Yes I am. OK, but haven't I said that DM will do for a while? I didn't negate the importance of chat. I just don't think it's the most important feature we need.

3. Point for you. Maybe make the markup language selectable for individual posts instead? In JSON it could be like {"markup": "markdown"/"tinymce"} or something like this to enable clients to easily detect what they have to parse. I think we can find some common ground here.

4. It was just a suggestion. I put it like this: basic styling (background image/color, font colors etc.) can be done via web UI. This is for users like Average Joe. More experienced users would have the option to upload custom CSS stylesheet to pod and style every element. What do you think about it?

I suppose you agree with me on points 5. and 6 (you made no comments about them). Does Private aspect solves the issue you had in mind?

@marekmarecki

I think the issue of themes is kinda moot. These are things that would be NICE to have, more than a major requirement.

As for your final point about private aspects :
Yes, again, its fine. It would do the job. But its not about "doing the job". Its about being intuative, and providing means of communication for the end user. Some people post blogs, others use twitter. Some post in pictures like Tumblr.
Im not saying we should be everything to everyone, but a blog functionality within the public profile view would be adventageous. Otherwise its just another view of the main stream. Im thinking of giving another means of "personalising" the way your data is shown to your 'followers'. If that makes sense.

@starblessed

Do you have any vision how this should be done? Maybe have another top bar tab? It would then be "Stream", "My Activity" and "Blog". And should the blog-posts be separated from normal activity-posts?

I think it would be a good idea to have discussions of specific features on separate threads, and keep this one for discussion of where we believe diaspora* should be headed over the next 12 months. Otherwise this thread will get bogged down in details and its purpose will be lost. Would that be all right with you?

I guess the most important things are the ones that make new users say "Well, that's worse than Facebook".

For me and my friends, the most important missing features are automatic updating of the stream and chat. Good mobile apps would also be great.

Automatic push to stream would be nice. Just not regular pull from client but some kind of push system, for example http://socket.io/ type of thing. Don't need to send the stream itself as a push, just enough to tell the client when to pull.

Priorities:

1. Pod Migration
2. Installation Packages
   
3. ???
4. Profit