Diaspora is a new social networking system that I find compelling even right now in its new, barely realized state. For an Alpha release, it is amazingly stable, brilliant in the simplicity of its design, and astonishing in the power it offers.

I could go on about the cool server features that mean your data is really yours and other features like that, but this intro is for people curious about how to actually use Diaspora. Because Diaspora's core concepts are very simple and tremendously powerful, but leave some people wondering how to use them.