I received that message as an email and found it to be annoying. It wasn't that long ago when they sent their previous message and this one doesn't cut to the chase either, doesn't sound professional and fails to convince me.
What confuses me is that I thought they made a boat load of money from the kickstarter campaign?
I think they made around $100,000 with Kickstarter. That's a lot for a Kickstarter campaign, but it's not a whole lot to run a company. Plus, that was about a year and a half ago.
I'd like to see the burn rate and where the money is going if I am to donate.
I loved the Diaspora* Project when it started but it seems to be too technically-focussed to ever be mainstream. And I don't know, Social networks need to be social.