That article is from 2 years ago, and what from what I understand, it was a barely-functioning prototype.

As recently as March of this year, they updated their roadmap. The second heading is "The Road to Beta". It also includes the line, "After these features are tackled, we feel that Diaspora as a platform will be Beta". It's pretty clear the founders themselves never even considered it to be a beta product.

See: https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/wiki/Roadmap

Requiring users to have the resources, time and technical expertise to set up the server themselves is hardly making a beta version available.

Most "beta" web services are still hosted.

It's also not how Diaspora works. Setting up a server is possible but not required.

Get your facts straight much?

Sorry, where did they host the Beta?

joindiaspora.com