This is a list of pods (Diaspora servers) run by Diaspora community members. Remember, when you join one, you always log in to that site. But you can follow friends on any pod, including the pod run by the project founders at joindiaspora.com.

This list is rather static. While it can be used as a reference, we recommend that when you are choosing which pod to sign up for, you also consider:

Podupti.me - similar service to PodUp, run by the fine folks at diasp.org.
Pod Ranking - also incorporating encryption and legal details, run by Christophe of wk3.org
Active Pods - A listing based on analysis of server access logs rather than performance metrics.

If there is an unbroken image next to the pod name in the list below, the pod is probably online at the moment.

Pod maintainers:

To add your pod to the list, please edit this page, adding details along the same pattern as the existing data. Pods are listed in alphabetical order by pod name.

Diaspora pods

Out of date:

This section's accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the page by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page.

Despora [1]
Opened: 15/2/2011
Updated: daily
HTTPS only
IPv6-Support
Maintained by: Lennart Prelle
- Contact: prellele@despora.de
Operating system: Ubuntu LTS 10.04
Comments: Over 99% uptime, facebook, twitter and tumblr integration, mostly german-speaking users

Diapod [2]
Opened: early September, 2012
Update: frequent pulls of the develop branch
Indexed @ [[3]]
HTTPS only, HTTP redirects active
IPv4 Only
Maintained by: aj
- Diaspora handles: [aj @ diapod .net] are
- Email addressed : [aj @ diapod .net]
Operating system: Latest Ubuntu LTS, NGINX, MySQL, RVM, Unicorn or Thin as needed
Server Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Comments: Personal Pod, Self Hosted, Social and development interests.

[[4]] [[5]]
- Opened: 26/11/2010
- Updated: major changes
- Maintained by a private person
  - [[6]]
- Operating system: Linux
- Comments: Public and free Diaspora pod for Germany

[[7]] [[8]]
- Opened: 30/11/2010
- Updated: major changes
- Maintained by a private person
  - [[9]]
- Operating system: Linux
- Comments: Public and free Diaspora pod for Europe

[[10]] [[11]]

Opened: 01/11/2010

Updated: Once a day @ noon

Maintained by: [[12]]

Operating system: Fedora 15

Also has a Live list of other pods with Uptime stats [[13]]

[[14]] [[15]]
- Opened: 01/08/2011
- Updated: frequently
- Maintained by: Andrej Podzimek andrej at podzimek dot org
- HTTPS (only)
- IPv6 support
- Operating system: ArchLinux
- Comments: Feel free to ask for an invitation!

[[16]] [[17]]
- Opened: 2010-09-21
- Updated: regularly
- HTTPS only
- Maintained by a private person
  - IRC/Freenode: phaidros
  - phaidros@subsignal.org
- Operating system: Ubuntu Server LTS
- Comments: Public Community Pod. Various People from German Hackerspaces aboard. SSL Cert is now Comodo, to properly interact with other pods.

[[18]] [[19]]
- Opened: 2011-05-31
- Updated: for stable, major changes
- HTTPS only
- Maintained by a private person
  - sean@urbanabydos.ca
- Operating system: Ubuntu Server
- Comments: proudly Canadian (despite the IP geo-location!). Invitations on request.

[[20]] [[21]]
- Opened: april 2011
- Updated: irregularly
- Maintainer: TeRRY LeIFeSTe (private individual)
  - slacker@failure.net (email and diaspora)
  - [[22]] (twitter)
  - [[23]] (diaspora - for failure.net pod info/updates)
- Operating system: Linux
- Features: public registration open, Twitter and Facebook support, HTTPS only.
- Comments: with a domain name like that, what do you expect?

[[24]] [[25]]
- Opened: 05/11/2011
- Updated: regularly
- Maintained by: private individual
- Contact : olivier@free-beer.ch
- Operating system: Debian Squeeze
- Comments: public registration open, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr support, HTTPS and IPv6 available

[[26]][[27]]
Opened: Feb-2012
Updated: running almost last pistos code
HTTPS only
Maintained by a private individual: groovehunter@kosmospora.net
Operating system: Linux Ubuntu
Comments: Open pod twitter integration, germany-based.

[[28]] [[29]]
Opened: 28/09/2011
Updated: ~daily
Maintained by a private person
- supertux@nerdpol.ch
Operating system: Linux (Debian Squeeze)
Comments: Public and free Diaspora pod

[[30]] [[31]]
- Opened: 2010-11-01
- Updated: daily
- Maintainer : Noncommercial group of 3 persons
  - IRC: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=diaspora-de
  - Twitter: http://twitter.com/geraspora
- Operating system: Ubuntu
- Comments: Free, public Diaspora-Pod for german users. Should run very stable, but we'll reset database whenever needed.

[[32]] [[33]]
- Opened: 2011-11-01
- Updated: daily
- Maintainer : Noncommercial group of 3 persons
  - IRC: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=diaspora
  - Twitter: http://twitter.com/orxnet
  - Web: http://www.orxnet.org
  - Web2: http://www.orkz.nl
- Operating system: Debian 6
- Comments: Free, public Diaspora-Pod for all users. Should run very stable and fast over a dedicated Fibre-optic internetcable.

[[34]] [[35]]
- Opened: 2010-12-11
- Updated: Biweekly
- Maintainer: Joe Bivins
  - poddery@tampabay.rr.com
  - [[36]]
- Operating system: Debian Linux (Squeeze)
- Comments: Following master branch.

[[37]] [[38]]
Opened: 30/07/2012
Updated: regularly
Maintainer: private person
- contact: nico@socializer.cc
HTTPS only, HTTP redirects active
IPv4 and IPv6
Operating system: Debian
Comments: open registration, ssl, twitter and facebook integration

[[39]][[40]]
- Opened: 09/09/2011
- Updated: regulary
- Maintained by: private individual
- HTTPS (only)
- IPv6 support
- Operating system: FreeBSD
- Comments: Public and free Diaspora pod. Facebook support.

[[41]][[42]]
- Opened: 29/09/2012
- Updated: regulary
- Maintained by: private individual * norayr[at]arnet.am
- HTTPS (only)
- IPv6 support
- Operating system: Funtoo
- Comments: Registration is open by invites only yet. Twitter support. First Armenian pod. Spyurk means Diaspora in Armenian.

[[43]][[44]]
- Updated: regularly
- Maintained by: private individual
  - christophe@wk3.org
- HTTPS (only)
- IPv6
- Operating system: Debian
- Comments: Public and free Diaspora pod. Facebook and Twitter support.

[[45]][[46]]
- Updated: Every periodically
- Maintained by Ryan Molecke
- Diaspora handle: Todamont@cryptospora.net
- Operating system: Linux (Ubuntu 10.04)
- Comments: Caters to cryptocurrency and computational science enthusiasts.

[[47]] [[48]]
Opened: 9/1/2011
Updated: semi-regularly
HTTPS only
Hosted by Linode
Maintained by: Jed Hobbs
- Contact: webadmin@permutationsofchaos.com
Operating system: Debian Linux 6.0
Comments: Public, Free, Twitter & FB integration. If you join the pod add me.
Notification of planned pod downtime/maintenance/updates.

Choosing a pod

[Below is my draft for how to choose a pod. Please amend, adapt and edit. Thanks, Goob]

Speculative:

This article is a work-in-progress. This article is currently a speculative draft based on user feedback and developer needs. As such, it should not be interpreted as a canonical source of future information until the details are more further refined. improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page.

One of the greatest freedoms Diaspora offers you is the freedom to choose where your personal data are stored, by choosing a pod. Choosing a pod is therefore one of the most important decisions you make when joining Diaspora.

If you have the technical expertise to do it, you can even host your data yourself by setting up your own pod, either using a computer you own as a server or using a server provided by a hosting company. In this way, you know exactly who has control of your data – you do. You can either set up a pod just for yourself, or open up your pod to other community members. [link to information and instructions on setting up a pod]

If you don't want to host your own pod, you'll need to choose from among Diaspora's community pods. You're probably used to having no choice over where your data are stored when you sign up to a new social network, so it's likely you've never had to think about this before. We'll try to give you some things to consider to help you make up your mind.

When choosing a pod, you may want to consider:

Location of the sever: you may want to choose a pod which is based near where you live, which may help improve response time; or you may want to choose one based in a country which you believe has good policies on data security.
Size of the pod: you might prefer to be on one of Diaspora's larger pods, or to be on a smaller one. There are advantages and potential drawbacks to each.
Software version: For most people, the ideal is a pod which is kept regularly updated to the latest stable version of the Diaspora software, and which will then have available all the latest features and performance enhancements. However, some pods run development code and experiment with features which are not yet properly finished. You might want to be on a pod which does this if you want to test new features for us, but in this case your pod may not be as stable.
.... others?

The best tool available to help you choose a pod is Pod Uptime, run by David Morley of diasp.org.

How to use Pod Uptime

Pod Uptime is a live list of open pods in the Diaspora network. It gets its results by regularly communicating with each pod and displaying the results.

The default view shows the results as a table; however, if you prefer, you can see the pods displayed on a map. Click 'Show Map View' in the top right to see this view.

You can see the pods listed according to any of the columns: pod name, software version, uptime, months online, user rating and location. To change the order they are shown in, click in the header of the column you want them to be ordered by. To reverse the order, click in the header again.

Pod name

This shows the pod's domain name. You can see whether the pod offers secure communication by whether or not it starts with https://. Pods which do offer secure communication are displayed in green; those which don't are displayed in red.

To see more details about the security offered by any pod and its performance, hover the cursor over the pod's name.

Version code

This shows the version of the Diaspora software which the pod is running. Those running the latest stable version are shown in green; those running older versions are shown in red. Also shown in red are pods running development code, which is newer than the latest stable release but is not as stable, so is only really suitable for people who want to help test Diaspora's software.

Uptime percent

This shows the amount of time the pod is running without problems. Most good pods should be close to or at 100%. Downtime can happen when updates are made, or when the server has a problem. More than a few percent of downtime can mean that you find Diaspora unavailable from time to time.

Months online

This is self-explanatory: it's how long the pod has been part of the Diaspora network.

User rating

Pod Uptime allows pod users to rate their pod. Click on a rating to see users' comments and individual scores.

Server location

This shows the country in which the server is based. You can see a more precise location for each pod's server by using the map view.

Hidden pods

There are also a number of community pods which aren't shown on the main list, as they have too many issues of one sort or another. You can see these if you want to by clicking the 'Hidden' link at the very bottom of the page.

Get connected!

We hope this helps you to choose a pod so that you can get connected to the Diaspora community. If you're still really not sure about which pod to choose after using Pod Uptime, just pick one of the pods which has a good rating, and perhaps which is based in a country near you, and give it a try. Once you're connected to Diaspora, you can always ask other community members about their experiences of different pods, by making a public post and using the #pod tag. You can always change pod at a later date by closing your account and opening one on a different pod.