Both are federated platforms based on open protocols, capable of being self-hosted.

Feature-wise, Mastodon is a microblogging platform, defaulting to 500 characters per post, and supporting hashtags, images, and video, as well as lists and blocking/muting capabilities.

Diaspora (and the related Friendica and Hubzilla) are social-graph posting platforms, with Markdown-based formatted posts of significant length,[1] organised around Aspects (similar to G+ Circles),[2] and hashtag-based interest seaarch/streams. Images and video supported, multiple Notifications types.

Friendica and Hubzilla add groups and other features, as well as more robust blocking (a distinct weakness of Diaspora).

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Notes:

1. I seem to recall 100k characters mentioned, 16,700 words or so. Novella range. Possibly longer.

2. Google+ apparently took its early design from Diaspora, including its renamed 'Circles' and "Sparks" features.

Diaspora is also federated.

>Diaspora tries to be a nonprofit Facebook. Is that correct?

Diaspora devs are a bit touchy about being referred to as a Facebook alternative, because it inevitably invites comparisons at a feature level, leading to disappointment. They've made it clear they do not aim to be a Facebook clone, and Diaspora will likely not have some features that Facebook has (no photo albums, no events, etc).

In practical terms, yes.

Diaspora is to Mastodon as FB is to TW.

Basically, a decentraliced "Facebook like" app.

Friendica and others will also post to both, I believe.

At least, that's how I'm using Mastodon.

Mastodon is when you can't handle any one having an alternative option than you, so you log on to a twitter clone where you are the only person using it and are always right.

Or you don't want to be harassed by someone taking your conversations out of context then doxxing you and trying to ruin your life.

As was recently demonstrated, online mob harassment is very doable on Mastodon:

http://wilwheaton.net/2018/08/the-world-is-a-terrible-place-...

Beyond the fact that I don't really believe Wil is entirely innocent in his complaints, he simply had to change instances.

He also used his real name. In fact, he didn't really take any steps to protect himself besides moving to mastadon. Large instances, after all, simply function like an unmonetized twitter.

> He also used his real name. In fact, he didn't really take any steps to protect himself

I kind of think that's the point for a celebrity on Twitter or a similar site.

Hard to have a completely slanted bias on social media, and then have the social media provider share your opinion.

A mass-communication platform fully optimized for individual consumption.

Just checked out Mastodon and I didn't feel compelled to sign up.

I am sure it is fine but the network effect is lacking, it is not as if I need to go on there for any reason, don't know anyone on there.

What I was surprised at was that there was no blockchain nonsense going on with it, lurking away in the footer. That really would have turned me off it.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think Mastodon predates the recent blockchain fad.

Mastodon dates from 2016. Depending on which aspects of blockchain, it lon postdates Bitcoin, and came up roughly in parallel with the blockchain-all-the-things idiocy.

Mastodon itself has no reliance on blockchain.

If one thinks about it, a properly used social network also doesn't need proof-of-work, because it has social proof. If three people you trust have spent 2 years regularly liking posts from a fourth account you can be quite sure that fourth account is no fake.

Reasonably. Sybil attacks still happen with frequency.

I've also noted that creating a new account with little visible connection to another can also re-establish social connections fairly quickly. After getting booted off G+ at one point, (accessing the site via Tor), I decided to tweak the entire notion of a trusted identity (having already gone pseudonymous) by naming my new account "The Real Slim Shady". I managed to re-acquire most of my core 20-40 followers over a few days.

(Being able to corroborate the connection from other sites helped, though many people twigged on who TRSS was even before checking.)

I've also seen known users turn hostile in bad ways over time. Much as I've had the experience of knowing people who've ended up committing murder, or serious financial crimes. Vetting is a hard problem.

I signed up for mastodon to use for posting electronics projects and getting feedback. It's... more of a platform to talk at people rather than with people. I do not mind that my friends are not on it, and I'm almost glad my family and coworkers are not on it.