Hello,

Welcome all that are #newhere!

I am not really #newhere, rather #oldhere (although I haven't been very active lately).

And now I am a #googleplusrefugee as well, along with many others. Returning to diaspora*
feels like returning to G+ in the beta period, a good foundation with a lot to work on.

The big difference is that while G+ is/was backed by a large corporate entity with lots
of resources, diaspora* is very much depending on us, the users, to get things moving.

That means that changes to the platform takes time. You might even have to contribute
in some way in order to make something happen. This is actually a Good Thing (tm), even
though it might feel like burden. Think of it like this: When was the last time your actions
and opinions actually had any influence on the direction of a social platform?

The development team today consists of a handful of volunteers that have been keping
the dream alive. Without them, there would be nothing but dead code in GitHub.

Hopefully there will be Ruby coders in the stream of people comfing from G+,
it might be that the shutdown of G+ will be a energy boost for disapora*!

There is a lot of energy (and curiosity) in posts from newcomers already, which is fun!

Of course not all of us are Ruby coders, or even coders. As others have said, there are other
ways than writing code that helps the project to move forward. For example, see
Hello and a big Welcome and Calling all coders.

If you are #newhere, please realize that it might actually be up to YOU to suggest a feature,
or to find ways to make this platform work better for all of us.

Ask not what diaspora* can do for you, ask what you can do for disapora*. :-)