From Iowa, moved to Wisconsin a few years ago after graduating college with my BSN. Most of my family has always been involved with the Democratic Party and have had a liberal, progressive views. I grew up loving history and current events which turned into an interest in politics that only grew once I got in high school. I’d say my liberal to leftist conversion began after the 2016 election and just started to learn how outdated the dems were and incompetent they have always been. I’ve only gotten more and more leftist as the years have gone by to the point where it’s hard to talk to people who only hold milquetoast liberal beliefs.

Why I’m on the fediverse? Curiosity: I had a random tab that lead to a link that explained the fediverse and just went down a rabbit hole about it today. After doing a bit of research, I finally looked into the platform and its quirks. Always been intimidated because it seemed too techy for me to grasp (still don’t have a total idea on how this all works just yet but I’m getting there) but realized the importance and the freedom that comes along with it. I was also a bit concerned about using the fediverse when I learned that it’s popular because it supposedly upholds “freedom of speech” to its truest form which I have always interpreted as a dog whistle for right wing lunatics to use slurs like an 8 year old. So it’s a massive relief to see a strong left wing presence here without having to utilize an algorithm to see such a community.

From Chicago. I made the plunge to Mastodon (and here) after the Reddit shenanigans and just seeing the repeated bad-faith policies by Twitter. I have been using redirector and libredirect for the last month or two to actively decide who I give my data to just as a fun experiment into best practices.

I think it’s slowly starting to be clear that this type of setup will be the way forward for the more tech-savvy, privacy-focused users, and hopefully/eventually it hits the mainstream as well, but otherwise, it’s just self-selecting into the type of people I want to be around, which will probably be better for my mental health anyways.

I’m into cycling, trading, sci-fi and FOSS. Currently reading The Expanse and taking a sabbatical year from work

Edit: Just want to encourage people to engage w/ and create content over the next few weeks. Activity and friendly faces are probably the most determining factor in whether someone becomes an active user or just browses for a few minutes

Another former reddit user from the Twin Cities here. Enjoying learning about lemmy so far, still trying to figure out how it works! Big fan of disc golf, board games, books, and video games.

Hello, I am a lemm.ee refugee. I live in Iowa. I like to game and I am a hobbyist game developer. I have some strong political opinions that I try to express in a constructive way. I will be trying to move my “Open Source Gaming” community over here too. I look forward to interacting with y’all!

Hi everyone. I showed up here because I saw Seahorse at the Akron pride fest with his awesome flag, told some of my likeminded friends about it, and they found his post. I showed up to applaud him, and decided to just stick around.

I used to use Reddit, with a very carefully curated list of subreddits, which I used replace my Twitter constant stimulation requirement. I had to ditch Reddit the day they killed Apollo and won’t be returning unless they reverse that decision.

I’m happy to have found this place, it’s nice.

I’m from Akron Ohio, work (remotely) in tech (job based in San Francisco), and do not like cops, landlords, or the ruling class really.

I feel like I’d fit in here pretty well.

Hi there from Madison, WI! I am the developer of Voyager :)

Hello, 9thSun here. Chicago resident. Boost for Reddit stopped working so I wanted to check out Lemmy. Hella into technologies.

Heyo! Checking in from Denver. Midwest Creds: both sides of my family are from Iowa (Waterloo area), I can name the 4 basic casserole ingredients, and I lived in Chicago as a kid and as an adult. I’m a Christian Reformed preacher’s kid who is now an agnostic atheist. I work in data centers doing security and compliance.

Love fly fishing and tie all my own flies. Fish for all species with a fly rod! Read a lot of epic fantasy (Malazan, BrandoSando, WoT). Do a bunch of 3D printing and light design work, follow the maker scene and do small electronics. Not a programmer but learning Python and Rust. Play board games and love me some Factorio and 4X games.

Anti-capitalist, anti-theist, anti-fascist. No gods, no masters. “I’ve gone so far left I came back around to owning guns!”

Greetings! My name is Matt and I live in Indianapolis. I’m migrating over from a single-user instance. You can also find me over at @leopardboy@netmonkey.xyz. Thanks!

Sup nerds. I’m Miah, I’m from Western Michigan. I’m a UNIX/Linux nerd, Right to Repair advocate, and transgender woman. I’ve been working on our cars by myself and would love to make some car nerd friends. My wife and I have 24 chickens, and a budding garden.

Hello! Crushed by the Reddit/Apollo debacle and looking for something less…corporate. Glad I found Lemmy!

I live in central Iowa and am a techno nerd - I like self hosting, docker, home labbin’, home automation, and home AV.

Reddit refugee, Clevelander, home theater/surround audio nerd. Nice to be here.

Howdy all! I live in the St Louis metro east area. I’m also a reddit transplant and already really digging the community. I’m super excited to be here! I’m into woodworking, making lamps and other crafts. I’m also exploring producing a niche form of EDM music eventually. I’m a fan of general internet research and constantly learning new information.

North burbs right on border of Chicago. Also a fellow reddit refugee. Can’t believe how sad I was when baconreader stopped working, and my stubborn ass knew I’d walk away.

So happy to have found Lemmy, and a midwest instance to boot.

Still not sure how all this works, but it does more than fill the need of interesting screen time.

In to skateboarding, snowboarding, motorcycles, gaming.

Work as a systems programmer specializing in audio and video systems.

Here from West Michigan as well, long-time moderator on the other place in a cult-recovery sub, but I’ve been active across metal-working and woodworking communities. Big fan of forged in fire and have been dabbling. Love Michigan, spend a good amount of time in Chicago now as well. Really appreciate that for community exists, feels like the early days (which were the Best days) over in the other place. Looking forward to being a part of this community!