[jbail]

If your idea is just Facebook without the privacy issues --- then it's not different enough for me. Diaspora got attention (and lots of funding) because their approach is radically different than Facebook's. While I agree that I don't see anyone's grandma configuring and hosting their own Diaspora "seed", I can very easily see paid seed hosts which will obfuscate this for the layperson. In fact, the paid seed could be how Diaspora makes money to keep development ongoing.