We got a bunch of new people in. How is everybody doing?

absolutely rooting tooting

Doing pretty well! At this point it's been over a year since I came over in the third-party app exodus and it's been great. Haven't really looked back all that much.
I'm glad to have picked this instance for my main account since it's local to me, isn't heavy handed with defederation (I like to watch the crazies from a safe distance) and performance has generally been good.
Outside of Lemmy things are pretty chill, no major complaints and my birthday is on Saturday, so it should be a good weekend :)
- Happy birthday!
- Happy early birthday!!! I hope it's a great one!

I'm ok. Shit is rough out there right now.

So did anything in particular trigger the influx of new users? Just curious. I’m another one of those people that came from Reddit during the API bullshit in 2023.
- My understanding is that it's due (at least in part) to some pretty aggressive censorship that's been going on over there. Especially with regard to Luigi and related topics.
  I'm also curious to hear if I'm wrong or if there's other stuff at play too
  
  That's precisely why I'm here. I deleted my Reddit account a few days ago, after I got several subreddit bans for upvoting Luigi related posts/comments that had no violent context. Just the name. One of them was a picture of the actual Nintendo character. After that I was like "fuck it, I'm done".
  Fuck Spez. Free Luigi.
  
  Yeah, this was the last straw for me. Sorta embarrassed it took me this long to ditch Reddit, I should have done it as soon as the API was killed
- I think reddit started banning people for even upvoting Luigi memes and protest stuff.
- Reddit decided to get a lil fashy and start banning people even for just upvoting shit.
- I deleted my 11 year account when they restricted API access, but capitulated and came back. Updoot restrictions and two 3 day bans made me close up shop and come over for good. I loved reddit, but will never go back again.
- I was unaware until recently. The death of the Apollo app was the end of Reddit for me but between old.reddit and ad blockers the experience was ok. But once I learned an alternative existed I moved.
- For me, it was the upcoming news of paid subreddit access that finally pushed me over to retry this place.
  
  Like you have to pay to join certain subs? Gross.

Truckin' along the best i can.

I'm freely up voting things without repercussion. weeeeeeeeeeee

Pretty good, I’ve been off of social media for a while but Lemmy looked intriguing enough to give it a try. I’m hoping it will be engaging without being addictive. So far I like it.
- Uh, well, in my experience Lemme is 100% addictive.
  You start to discover that Reddit lacked a lot of real people and now you have a ton of real people you're conversing with
  
  I find that it's less addictive in the way there isn't an infinite pool of content. But much more interactive. So I can engage when it seems interesting but stop from doomscrolling. Its a great mix

As good as can be expected after getting perma-banned on reddit for violating rules with multiple accounts just hours before my 7-day temp ban for 'encouraging violence' was lifted on appeal, despite only ever having had 1 account in my entire 14 years of using reddit.

I'm doing as well as can be, also, first post. I saw Kentucky was "added" to the midwest as a community and said, "let's make an account" - glad to get away from reddit. Honestly, I keep seeing the sticky post to go make friends, and with spring in KY, I've been going on walks to the park. So hello Lemmy, thanks for having me.
- I think Oklahoma has a community on here too. We judge, but in a polite Midwestern way.
  
  Can confirm, I'm an Oklahoma account that came over in the API purge. About the only thing I miss from reddit is my local town's and Oklahoma's subreddits. Other than that, everything is better federated.

Glad to see all the new signups. What's going on y'all?

First post! I'm in Minnesota. I'm too old to understand the federated stuff very well and am having a confusing learning curve here and on Mastodon. I just know it's time to get away from social media with shareholders attached, so here I am. Every day is some new horror, but also every day, here I am, trying to learn something new.

Finally armed up and got an AR-15, got a lower receiver from KE Arms and an upper off the shelf from my local gun store, haven't gotten a chance to go to shoot it yet but it's gonna be a fun day when I do!
- Sweet! I'm new to owning an AR too. Recent events tipped me in favor of owning. I have a good amount of military experience though so the platform isn't new. You should have a good time learning how to effectively use it. Just make sure you learn it. Be safe friend!
- Hell yeah!

Hello from Madison, new people 👋 I've been trying to figure out the most effective activism with my group's limited resources.

Trying by best up in Michigan
- The husband's from there; great state! Though I love all the Midwest, honestly.

I'm new here. What's up with the frequent use of the word "rule" in post titles?
- The rules for the various 196 communities state that if you interact with the community, you have to post a meme, or at least something before you "leave." Shoehorning "rule" into the title is a high-effort way to indicate a low-effort post. Such is the mystery of 196.
  
  Before Blaze shows up to funnel people to his 196 sub, all 196 communities are inclusive and people should contribute to whichever ones they feel welcome in.
  Don't let users identifying as sonic characters bully you into exclusively using the spaces they contol.
- That's a 196 thing I believe
- Urban Dictionary to the rescue. Appearently this community has one rule: post something before you leave. The easiest headline is 'Rule', like in 'post because of THE rule'.

Made the jump here because theres a lot of doom and gloom on reddit... nice seeing people here being active in their community outside of the online space. Ive already seen organizing/mutual aid work happening on here. Cant wait to explore more, thanks for having me

I've been enjoying it here! Much less toxicity and restrictions in comparison to reddit. I've been able to find a ton of communities I'll participate in. I look forward to using this platform a lot going forward.

Indiana here, 40 trans woman/mom figure Doing pretty OK despite everything

Since this place has midwest in the name, and the main mod is from Ohio, I'm gonna roll some dice here. If you happen to be anywhere near northeast Ohio, There's a group in Cuyahoga Falls called "Meaningful Conversations Akron" that can be found on FB and meets every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM. They leverage principles of interfaith spirituality to stay focused on the sort of unity which is necessary as a goal in order to even begin winding down the division that dragged us here.
The old stickied post suggested going out and making friends in person. That effort is how I found that group. It's been really good for me.
- I'm glad you found some people. If you're in the Akron area and are interested in doing some community outreach with other like minded people you should look into Serve The People Akron.

Evenin'. I'm doing alright, aside from being tired of all the chaos that's happened these past three months.
I'm one of the many people coming to Lemmy from Reddit. I made a Mastodon account back when Twitter went to shit (kolektiva, to be precise), so I figured I may as well make one for here.