It's a bit of a downer.

> A diaspora (/daɪˈæspərə/) is a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. In particular, diaspora has come to refer to involuntary mass dispersions of a population from its indigenous territories, most notably the expulsion of Jews from Israel (known as the Jewish diaspora) and the fleeing of Greeks after the fall of Constantinople. Other examples are the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the southern Chinese or Indians during the coolie trade, the Irish during and after the Irish Famine, the Romani from India, the Italian diaspora, the exile and deportation of Circassians, and the emigration of Anglo-Saxon warriors and their families after the Norman Conquest of England.

And the domain for their main "pod" is joindiaspora.com which is terrible, and it's closed for registration.

I came for this comment. Seems like it was named after the act of people leaving other social networks, but what about if everyone really had left and was using Diaspora?

i suggested someone once try it and they mistake it for a "disease".

The name is quite descriptive for its decentralized nature. I don't see a problem with it.

agree. it's simply a bad name. 4 syllables long, and a strange word that most people have never seen before.