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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

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!

Minnesotan and architectural designer here. I'm giving lemmy a try after deciding to leave that other site, and I feel like this midwest instance has the right vibe for me. Looking forward to spending all my time here instead of helping a faceless company make more money on their IPO!

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.

Ohioan and electrical engineer here. Not exactly a refugee from reddit, since mostly all I did there was lurk, but excited to be here and distributed anything makes an engineer happy. At least this engineer.

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 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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Hello, Lemmy! Hikeandbike here. I'm an IT network administrator from Michigan.

I was never quite active on Reddit... So can't quite say I'm a refugee. But, heard about Lemmy on the Self Hosted podcast and thought I'd give it a try!

As my username says, I enjoy hiking, and more specifically, mountain biking. Just backpacked the Manistee River Trail and trying to find some time to backpack the trails along the Pictured Rocks.

Besides that, self hosting, rock climbing (mostly indoor,) and Linux & open source are how I spend my free time.

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

Hello from Waukesha WI! IT geek, amateur (HAM) radio operator, husband, father, and grandfather.

Hello! I'm from Indiana outside of Chicago. This seems like a good group to join. Like most here, I work in tech. I like cooking/grilling, gaming, bad movies, and the outdoors. I am migrating from Reddit and looking for a place that reminds me of the early days of Reddit.

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.

Howdy! I live in Indiana, reddit exodus member and I'm looking for a new place to call my internet home.

Howdy! I'm Mike and I'm in South West Ohio. Im an Ex Sync user migrating like a lot of others.

One question.... before I go scrub my, ahem.... account on that nameless platform, is there an online banking system that will allow my to transfer my hard earned internet points to another platform? You know, kinda like a rollover from one 401k to another?

Not that I had any huge amount.

Anyway...... OH!!!

Hello! Indianapolitan (Indianapolista?) here. Mostly checking whether I was actually accepted. Thank you to the team that put this together, I was looking for a reddit community like this anyway. Indy_Involved is good but this is a bit different (and not reddit!).

Hello! I am not midwestern myself, but I got roots there via both parents (dad was born and raised in Iowa, maternal grandmother born and raised in Kansas, etc.). And the California Central Valley is basically the Midwest of the West. I am also what some would call "left", though more traditional socialists might dispute my credentials (Geoist/Anarchist). Looking forward to some good conversation.

Let's start with this: anyone know why my UI here defaults to Japanese? Yeah, I'm a weeb, but I'm not sufficiently weebish for that.

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.

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.

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.

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

Love the regional community server

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!

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

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

FemmeGauche here. I'm a lefty millennial in Michigan who can use the internet but new to this decentralized stuff... just trying to find community while asshole billionaires wreck the easier-to-access stuff

Hello from Kansas (burbs of Kansas City).

Like many, I came from reddit. Spent about 10 years there; about 5 just lurking, then about 5 years a little more engaged.

My hobby is hobbies. I think I just like learning and tinkering. My list of endeavors includes photography, diy audio, camping, cooking/smoking, woodworking, beer brewing, gardening, music (making and consuming), home diy, etc, etc.

Some lasted, some did not, others come and go.

So many times Ive had a nuanced question posed to a community of enthusiasts yield 1000% better results than several hours of searching and reading. I'm looking forward to exploring and interacting here.

Hiya! Greetings from Florida, land of the loony. Glad to be here!

Hi! STL based ttrpg writer. Pleased to meet you.

KCMO transplant here, currently studying ECE over at UMKC, and I like DIYing everything(because I believe in the right to repair my stuff). I have a completely DIY 80W CO2 laser table that I designed and built myself, and I also enjoy mycology, PC gaming and TTRPGs, I tinker around with music production, and to throw yet another project in the stack: I'm about to start brewing mead. Mostly here to make friends and find fun stuff to do in the KC Metro area. 🏳️‍🌈

Hello! I'm Matt from northeast Ohio, another Reddit transplant looking for a new home. I'm mostly into photography, hiking , biking, and backpacking, and my homes of choice in the area are Cuyahoga Valley and Wayne NF

Hi all, just joined. I live a bit north of Milwaukee. I've enjoyed perusing the local communities to see what my neighbors are up to.

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.

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!

Michigan guy here. Been a programmer all my life, but I'm dabbling in photography too these days.

I also create games for fun, so there's officially a crowd of us now.

Checking in from Nebraska and learning how things work.

Been here one hour and totally prefer this to Reddit.

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.

Ope! Forgot to introduce myself.

Erik St. Louis

You probably figured that out.

Come join us in !stlouis, or join me specifically in !stlouiscitysc

And if you haven't already, there's some fine folks on mastodon at social.stlouist.com!

Reddit escapee living in Central IL. Remote enterprise application developer in a fairly niche insurance category. Grew up here but spent many years in Chicago and then San Diego. Came back to raise a family here and have been back for about 17 years now. Good to be here in midwest.social!