Some on HN may remember Diaspora*, an early federated social network launched in 2010, which HN has covered occasionally through the years: <https://hn.algolia.com/?q=diaspora> (about 460 results as I type this).
I've somewhat withdrawn from it myself over the past few years, largely due to many unresolved frustrations and an all-but moribund development process. Not that I'm a fan of needless feature churn, but there are both glaring UI/UX and performance deficiencies and apparently numerous security concerns for hosters and admins.
Logging in for the first time in months earlier today I found a flurry of new "sharing" notifications which are usually the portent of a "pod" (instance) going offline, and sure enough one of the remaining oldest pods, diasp.org, is no longer.
Adam's been a long-time contact on Diaspora* (and several prior online platforms), and does an analysis of network-wide active users with a somewhat dismal finding. At present rates of activity decline "the number of active users will hit zero in 158 days, on 11 June 2025".
There's a plot of online servers (note non-zero based axis) as well here:
The online world is in the midst of ongoing upheaval, with existing platforms changing ownership and administration, and new corporate networks firing up (Adam's headed to Bluesky, I've declined to join that myself Because Reasons). Having been through numerous rounds of once-vital, now moribund or entirely dead networks (Usenet, Slashdot, G+, Ello, Reddit, amongst others, some perhaps more dead-to-me than dead), watching this dynamic play out yet again, and considering what it has to say about present incumbents is interesting.
One thing I will say about Diaspora* is that it's spent far more time dying than any corporate network I can think of, with ten years or more of neglect. With the possible exception of Slashdot (still limping, but a pale shadow of a pale shadow of its former self).
Not a highly significant passing, and not yet a passing, but an ongoing fade with lessons for those paying attention.
I've somewhat withdrawn from it myself over the past few years, largely due to many unresolved frustrations and an all-but moribund development process. Not that I'm a fan of needless feature churn, but there are both glaring UI/UX and performance deficiencies and apparently numerous security concerns for hosters and admins.
Logging in for the first time in months earlier today I found a flurry of new "sharing" notifications which are usually the portent of a "pod" (instance) going offline, and sure enough one of the remaining oldest pods, diasp.org, is no longer.
Adam's been a long-time contact on Diaspora* (and several prior online platforms), and does an analysis of network-wide active users with a somewhat dismal finding. At present rates of activity decline "the number of active users will hit zero in 158 days, on 11 June 2025".
There's a plot of online servers (note non-zero based axis) as well here:
<https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/77b0eb00d99e013d137728...>
The online world is in the midst of ongoing upheaval, with existing platforms changing ownership and administration, and new corporate networks firing up (Adam's headed to Bluesky, I've declined to join that myself Because Reasons). Having been through numerous rounds of once-vital, now moribund or entirely dead networks (Usenet, Slashdot, G+, Ello, Reddit, amongst others, some perhaps more dead-to-me than dead), watching this dynamic play out yet again, and considering what it has to say about present incumbents is interesting.
One thing I will say about Diaspora* is that it's spent far more time dying than any corporate network I can think of, with ten years or more of neglect. With the possible exception of Slashdot (still limping, but a pale shadow of a pale shadow of its former self).
Not a highly significant passing, and not yet a passing, but an ongoing fade with lessons for those paying attention.