I completely disagree. If you offered a decentralized alternative to, say, Facebook that gave the user command of their data and could compete on user experience I think you would have a mega-hit. The bugaboo is "compete on user experience." Most average users might not care, but enough do to swing the market center of gravity if other things are equal. Problem is other things are not equal.
For users of very low power devices and low bandwidth mobile that could not run the software, you could have any number of independent hosting providers that would host a web based instance either for free as a community service or for a few bucks.
My impression is that Diaspora tried valiantly. If execution had been better and the team hadn't collapsed and if they could have really solved the technical problems I think they would have made it to a pretty decent size.
For users of very low power devices and low bandwidth mobile that could not run the software, you could have any number of independent hosting providers that would host a web based instance either for free as a community service or for a few bucks.
My impression is that Diaspora tried valiantly. If execution had been better and the team hadn't collapsed and if they could have really solved the technical problems I think they would have made it to a pretty decent size.