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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

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.

Hey everyone, started exploring Lemmy the other week and really jumped in after the Apollo news broke.

I’m gamer/podcaster/dad/wannabe bourbon enthusiast from Michigan.

I have a tech role in logistics and am just looking for a chill community to be a part of.

Currently consumed with exploring Hyrule.

Hello! I live in Kalamazoo, MI and grew up in Muskegon, MI. I'm a part of the mass exodus from reddit. So far I'm enjoying the fediverse and was glad to see an instance dedicated to midwesterners. I work in mental health and enjoy cooking/baking, crafting, painting, kayaking, gardening, gaming (DnD, Zelda, board games) and spending time with my loved ones. Excited to be here!

Yet another reddit refugee, but the only thing I will miss is the niche animal husbandry subreddits.

My main interests are critter genetics & habitat management, and a lot of husbandry n enrichment on the side. Always been a bit of a pain to be lefty & interested in livestock, most of the old forums such as they still exist are full of people that are pretty aggressive in their disapproval of my sort. But maybe I'll find a niche eventually!

I do other science n tech reading and cruise some of the hobby stuff (carpentry, mini terrain, jewelry making... I like a little bit of a lot of things) but don't usually post as much as lurk those areas.

Are folks from other instances welcome here? Still figuring out etiquette or whatever. I got impatient over the weekend and jumped into Lemmy through sopuli.xyz due to a lower barrier to entry.

I'm a Minnesota person living in St. Paul. I coordinate graduate programs, which basically means I'm a nanny for graduate students. Movie nerd and sweet tooth haver. 1 dog and 3 cats. I used to be a forklift operator and a freight railroad conductor. Formerly UFCW, BLET, and AFSCME. Now I'm IWW IU620.

Former Reddit user who is jumping ship after 13 years, I live in the Twin Cities I’ve been in IT for more than 10 years trying to jump ship to programming interest our programming fanfiction litRPG‘s and audiobooks not necessarily in that order.

Hey, all. Like many, I'm bailing on Reddit given the drama and sheer disrespect for everyone, trying this community with a few friends.

I'm an Iowan, soon-to-be dad, equally-avid gardener and range time enthusiast, software engineer, gamer, etc. Based on the other intros, seems like I'll fit in well enough.

I wish I was consumed with exploring Hyrule; the pre-baby DIY crunch is too time-consuming.

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.

Hi, I'm Corwin! TL;DR: wordy nerd for MN; lotsa kids, cats, GNU vol.

I'm yet-another-new-user bc Reddit; glad for the mass troop move toward FOSS and federated things, social especially. Over the last few years, I've been weaning myself off mass-media social: forgive me, hacker, it's been (only) three days since my last reddit/twitter/FB post. RE FOSS, I volunteer with some projects like EmacsConf and GNU Savannah. If you are looking to get involved with FOSS volunteering but aren't sure where you can get started HMU :)

Ahem. Meanwhile, in the interest of full disclosure. About Emacs...

Passion for Emacs has been likened (variously derisively or with found amusement) to religious fervor.

I help with the annual conf, like I mentioned. I make official binaries for Emacs available from GNU FTP servers/mirrors. I help with ERC, one of the IRC clients that ships with Emacs. I'm making an RPG engine for Emacs called dungeon-mode. I feel that this post will be incomplete unless I tell you even more about Emacs right now:

Emacs is a text editor built around a lisp machine. Most of it is implemented in Emacs Lisp (elisp). It can be customized using menus, like a normal program. Or using code, programs full of code, auto-generated programs, self-modifying programs, and so on.. such nonsense for a text editor to be doing any of this, of course.

Hopefully, you can see where I occasionally get myself in trouble. Every once in a while I need someone to tell me "no". To say "Corwin. Oh, Corwin. The X forum doesn't want to hear about how you integrated X into Emacs." "STFU about Emacs please Corwin", And so forth.

TIA if that's you.

In conclusion, when you are ready to talk about Emacs, find me on IRC corwin@libera.chat#emacs.

MN; 48/wm/2 partners 17y/5y, 5kids, 5cats. emacs4evah

Thanks for your work @seahorse. I'm pumped to talk regional sports again. Big Ten, NFC North, NBA Central. Adios Reddit.

Hello! Quad Citizen reporting in, pretty active in the /r/Iowa and /r/QuadCities subreddits and poking around to see who's popped up in Lemmy.

MOST of our buildings are solid.

Howdy! I'm Evan, I'm from STL, and recently graduated from S&T with a BS in CS, going back for an MS. I'm a linguist, software engineer, musician, FOSS contributor, and Fediverse enthusiast. I build computers, run servers, write music, and get angry at the US/MO on the daily.

P.S.: call me scum, because I've only ever used Reddit via their official app, but at least I jumped ship!

Hey all, I live in Wisconsin and am exploring moving over from Mastodon because I like the Reddit-style interface better than Twitter-style. Like probably most here, I'm a tech nerd who is forever trying to get people away from the centralized internet.

Hi, Chicago resident primarily occupied with left-wing politics, board games, biking/public transit, and functional programming :)

Love the regional community server

Chicago leftist here! I like to play games, do Mutual Aid when I can, and read a lot of theory. Came over here to find a new community and more opportunities to network with other lefties.

Hey all! Lifelong Midwesterner and current Chicagoan. Refugee from r/Chicago and Reddit user of 11 years. I love baking, gardening, and currently engrossed in the new Zelda.

Morning everyone. Chicago suburb native of 42 years who doesn't really feel like leaving. Working at one of the many data centers in the Chicago area, if you can call it work, because I enjoy technology in general. I joined because I've been migrating from legacy social media to the Fediverse; Reddit's API nonsense helped that process along.

Contrary to what my parents and sisters drilled into my head as I was growing up, I've been leaning more and more left as I age. At some point, someone decided that giving our children a better life meant making them suffer. Seems like teaching my kids to be grateful for the opportunities they have, respect others' beliefs, accept people from all walks of life, stand up for marginalized groups, foster positive mental health outcomes, not expect anything to be handed to them, and just be good people in general makes me a communist in the eyes of many, including my own parents. I'm gonna have to pass on whatever ideology came up with that and work toward dismantling it.

Beyond that ... I'm pretty low key most of the time. I like PC (Linux) gaming, physical computing, 3D printing, video editing, analog media preservation, listening to open source-related podcasts, road trips, dogs, glamping, grilling, beer, grilling while glamping and drinking beer and hanging out with my dogs, etc. I listen to metal but have been on a Sleep Token kick since the newest album was released.

I don't speak up often because someone else typically said what I want to say first, posting responses like "This" is annoying, and upvotes are silent. At any rate, nice to meet everyone, hope to be able to contribute something useful at some point.

Hi there. Iowan leftist fleeing the mainstream platforms to help my mental health. Feeling disillusioned with national political action and wanting to focus my attention locally. I'm and avid gardener, war-gamer/mini painter, and forever D&D GM.

From a Wisconsin Exurb of the Twin Cities. I am an astronomer and instrumentation physicist, most of my day job is debugging software and electronics. But sometimes it is looking at galaxies and exoplanets. I am getting back into running after an injury and am currently reading about political economics.

Hi, I'm in Central Illinois. Reddit doesn't let me make accounts anymore... they want email addresses and I want privacy.

Fellow from Lansing, MI here. Joining as part of the reddit exodus, and because I like the concept of the fediverse.

Good morning, midwestern Lemmites! Actually a Hexbear refugee, I got banned when they found out I organize with Trotskyists. Don't worry though, my IRL organizing work creates enough personal irritation that I don't need to harass people who disagree with me in order to get it. I'm just here cuz its a leftish space of localish people, who post memes and stories I can comment on. I like Music, art, videogames, tech, books (history, social theory, sci fi)...well I actually have too many hobbies and interests to list. Thanks for letting me in your little instance!

Hi!

Ohioan here... I too am a recent reddit refugee.... anyone else having digg deja vu?...

Likes: Nerdy things, Video Games, Animals, Ohio sports teams, Music, Traveling

Been on Mastodon for a few months (suck it twitter) and with Reddit's recent money grab figured I'd check out other parts of the fediverse.

Hi everyone! Like a number of new users here, I’m coming over from Reddit due to the recent changes there. I grew up in central WI, and currently live in Milwaukee. Work as a software engineer, and in my free time, I love to nerd out on rollercoasters, hike, and whatever tech projects I get myself in to.

Hoping to find a community as nice as people are in the Midwest, as well as a place to see pictures of everyone’s cats

Yet another long time Apollo refugee joins the instance. Greeting from Omaha, home of the Henry Doorly Zoo, Runza and… uh… Berkshire Hathaway? M/39 software dev with some young kids and a dog. Looking forward to the same bullshit on Lemmy I enjoyed on Reddit: D&D memes, programming, college basketball (Rock Chalk) and video games.

Hello, moved from Reddit like many others. Deleted my 8 year old and 12 year old accounts this morning. This already feels like what I always wanted Reddit to be.

Hello! Originally from southeast Oklahoma, currently in southeast Wisconsin. I moved to Wisconsin from Oklahoma a two years ago and I'm really glad to be here. I'm liking Wisconsin so far. Both of my little ones were behind in language skills and education in general. (especially coming out of COVID) and the care and attention they've gotten from our school here in WI is so much better than what we had back home. I myself am an electrical engineer and software programmer. I came here looking for a better job. Most of my friends had already fled OK or would like to soon. I enjoy retro gaming and game console mods. I also recently became a certified ham radio extra class operator.

Hello from /r/iowa!

Hi from Topeka, KS! I'm a software engineer who loves games, cooking, and his friends. Thank you seahorse for starting this up!

hello! I'm a non-binary Chicago-based cyclist, film photographer, 3d artist, and open source contributor when I get the time.

slowly getting my bearings out here in the fediverse; like many others I am yet another longtime Reddit refugee. stoked for Sync for Lemmy soon—that'll feel like I've officially switched over.

Hi y'all! I'm from Indiana. Nice to meet you all!

I joined a while back (after the rise of Mastodon following some edgelord's purchase of Twitter, although I had heard about both that and Lemmy long before), and I still probably won't be active on Lemmy until Reddit dies off; I joined this instance because it's the most relevant (nothing akin to Mathstodon, where I have the same username) and I was advised against just flocking to the main one.

I was most active on /r/learnmath and /r/Buttcoin and I might go to refugee communities related to both, and to things like /r/learnjavascript (where I was active until a few years ago, also as an answerer of questions) and /r/badmathematics.

Reddit user since 2011, already I feel right at home!

Hi, all! I signed up for Lemmy the other day using another instance, but thought this would be a better fit. I’m a 39 year old male who grew up in Ohio and currently resides in Michigan. By day, I'm a Technology & Strategic Project Manager at the University of Michigan. By night, I'm a technology-obsessed, music-loving vegan. I’ve been active on Reddit since 2010 and am disappointed to see the direction it’s going. I’m quite active on Mastodon, so feel free to connect with me there, as well!

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

Hello from Northern MN! I like memes, gaming and tech stuff!

Hey everyone. I am yet another migrant from reddit hoping for c/kansascity to grow into a full, active community like we once were on reddit.

Hey friends! Twin Cities chiming in. Classic story of jumping ship now that reddit has struck the iceberg. Hoping to find new communities here for scratching my artistic itches. I'm a drummer, DJ, designer, illustrator, who dabbles with music production. Let's get weird.

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.

Hey y’all I’m Josh and I’m from Iowa but go to school for Music in SoDak. Getting booted off Reddit because I only use Apollo and this seems like a pretty solid alternative. Looking forward to building the communities with y’all!

Upon further investigation of this comment section I may be the only SoDakian in here lol. Surprised SoDakZack hasn’t jumped over from Reddit

My name's Tyler. I live in NE Kansas, about an hr from KCK-Proper.

I get really into things quickly and then forget about them just as fast; Usually just enough to break something, get frustrated, and grab something else. My home is a monument to my family's abandoned hobbies.

MI here!

Hoping for regional news and weekend mini-vacation discussion

Hi! I'm @slackadelic as you can tell! I've used this moniker for many years. The root of the nick comes from Slackware Linux many, many moons ago. I'm a father first, a husband second, and a gamer the rest of the time!

I like to play a lot of different games including #TheDivision2, #SeaOfThieves, #Battlefield (4 or 2042, either works for me).

My biggest hobby is streaming! You can always find me on #YouTube under my tag of slackadelicYT (yeah, whomever has my proper moniker never uses their account! ARGH!)

My main concentration right now for gaming is #TheDivision2 right now.

Other things I'm into:

• Information Technology - This is my primary field of study and have been doing it for many, many years My main concentration is networks and network engineering. I do have a pretty complicated setup at home, comes with the territory!

• Date nights with my wife! Love hanging out with my lady!

• Spending time with my kiddos. When they're not fighting each other and making a mess :)

I'm also a proud father to a recent high school graduate! Very, very proud of her!

Anything else, just ask!

Osiyo (Cherokee) Oy li'one (Tzotzil: I'm here)

SW Kansas here, and my brain has decided to take a back seat to life, so throw in chronic pains, I'm just hunting for a new way to exist. Don't know what I'm doing yet, but I know I'm doing it, heh heh heh...What? I don't know. Do you know? No I do not, but would you like to know? Of course I would. Well tough luck there, pal.

Anyway, before the 'ol thinker decided to call it quits, I used to be quite the nerd. I dabbled in C, assembly, bash (Slackware user, so I better know bash, heh), calc, pari/gp, mathematics (Began aiming for number theory just before the brain gave out), native american languages, sharks, carnivorous plants, ferns, cooking, just to name the easiest.

Hi! Reddit refugee, Iowan, computer person. 2 cats. Too much DnD, too much fanfiction. First time on Fediverse.