When I first got Diaspora invite few months back, it had just the basic social networking functionality, that is:

• You could add/invite anyone
• Post a status message for one specific aspect, or all of them

And that was all. All other features, like notifications, posting status message to multiple aspects, mention someone using @, infinite scroll etc. came later. Personally, I don’t think Diaspora will become facebook killer any time soon, if ever, but with the latest updates, which includes private messaging among other things, it now has all the major features required by average social networking users, not to mention with much greater importance given to privacy and security than most other social networking sites.

I think Diaspora is now ready for general, non-techie population. If you have tried Diaspora in past and found it lacking or was just waiting for it to get some more features before giving it a try, I think now is the time to do so. If you want an invite, let me know here or ask on identi.ca.

Update: I am out of diaspora invites to share, you can still get them by asking at diasporainvites group on identi.ca.