Are you a computer/tech person?

Not exactly. I'm kind of a "learn what I need to to get by" person. I'm not really a Linux person... but my old laptop took 15 minutes to boot up, and the hardware obsoleted out of windows updates, so now I have Linux.

I ran out of space in Google Photos. I would've happily bought more space but they told me I'd have free backup space forever if I compressed my photos. When they changed that policy I realized I was being jerked around. So then I got a raspberry pi, and learned how to (barely) set up a server to run Immich.

I liked browsing reddit, but, again, I don't like being jerked around, so here I am.

Not a tech person. I'm a seamstress/tailor who will make you feel like the smartest person in the room when I ask questions about computers. Never knew so much about internet privacy before Lemmy, either. It's been eye-opening to learn about tech-stuff on Lemmy!

I left R×ddit out of spite, then found out youtubers made videos reading out my posts and said goodbye to it forever. It became a free content farm ripe for mishandling, astroturfing, and paid propaganda.

My stubborn ass will learn something beyond simple navigation because I'm always wanting to skirt injustice and do what little I can to not support rampant capitalism (I have no money!)

I mean.... I learned Blender. I'm capable of pretty much everything!

We're happy you're here! 😊

Yes. It’s a tech/ nerd bubble here.

Yes, I am and before you ask: no, I will not help you fix your grandma's PC.

Negative, I am a meat Popsicle.

Smoke you!!
- Gimme da cash!

Compared to most people in my IRL, yes. Compared to lots of people on Lemmy who work in industry or are much more serious hobbyists than me, no.

Me too, know my way around a computer but have never setup a linux distro or anything like that... yet.

I left in one of the mass exodus waves of reddit (during the api changes) and i feel like its not that consequential to be one person less on one of the biggest sites on the internet, but every person counts. Especially when what is becoming increasingly apparent is that all reddit will soon have is bots and 'normies' who use reddit instead of facebook/whatever.

yes i am partially computer

I like how this platform works, I'm actually active here unlike the garbage fire that was and is reddit

Yes, I am in networking and cybersecurity so it was a matter of time before I found out there was a better alternative to reddit

I only used reddit through an app so when they closed the api that was the day reddit shut down for me, I came looking for meme pages. I forget about reddit, I have my memes and shitposts. Sure, fewer than the before times but I also see less guerilla marketing so that's nice.

I'm just here for the Reddit alternative. Being FOSS is a bonus.

I'd say I'm more of a computer person than the average person, but less so than the average Lemmy user.

Same here. Reminds me that Reddit was mostly techy posts for the first while too.

I'm a water engineer with a PhD, so not a tech nerd but definitely a nerd :) I came here mostly because I find the Reddit app annoying and the app I was using came here.

reddit is a cesspit, on reddit it used to be that misinformation or incompetency cope would be promptly identified, now its the top 5 comments on any thread...and the next 5 are circle jerks.

in other words: welcome reddit refugees. please please feel free to leave the reddit mindset at the door on your way in :)

I started using reddit just for the memes and would use some 3rd party frontend to get rid of the ads and nake the interface way cleaner. When the API pricing was announced, I serched for a better source of memes and somehow found lemmy. No ads, no bullshit, and there are some cool communities here that I actually want to participate in.

I came to Lemmy just looking for a Reddit alternative. I think this is a superior forum system with user scoring and nested comments. But I do love that it is open and federated and I'm glad to be rid of Reddit completely.

I am a huge tech nerd and love doing these things as side projects (but I prefer making hardware). I like making stuff so the things I've been making/setting up are:

Setting up a R.Pi as a retro gaming console
R.Pi Kodi media player
Putting together a hotswap keyboard from a kit
Migrating to privacy alternatives and degoogling my life
Migrating to Linux
Making a fight game controller from scratch
Making a custom keyboard with soldering and custom layout (and then again for having the same keyboard at work)
Building a new gaming PC
Getting a synology NAS and going down the Docker rabbit hole
Making another fight game controller.......or 3

Now I'm planning making a DIY microphone for MS Teams meetings

No, and I cannot fix your PC

Like most people on this site, I'm a happy consumer who rejects FOSS (McIBM is enough for me thank you), hates moderation (spicy pickles on icecream is my breakfast), and routinely walks the neighbourhood naked because I think privacy is for prudes. I'm only here as a spy for Reddit and routinely report all activity to Sir Zuckerberg since I hope to start a romantic endeavour with him one day...

...what kind of answers were you hoping to get?

I'm techie enough to be interested in federated social media networks. I'm techie enough to start using Linux. Ain't that enough techie?

*crawls out of a gutter and sneers*
where's your collection of broken calculator watches that you swear you'll fix some day?
*scuttles back into sewer*
- Never had a calculator watch, let alone a collection of broken ones.

I'm a bit of a FOSS nerd and care about privacy, but I'm much more an art and design person than I am a technical person.

I use Linux, and I can write some very basic code after learning how in Highschool, but mostly I just like making pretty stuff. Especially anything to-do with UI/UX

Like someone else said, I'm a technical person compared to the average population, but not compared to Lemmy, or the FLOSS community. I left reddit when the api changes happened, and have found I really love the Fediverse and very strongly believe in what it represents

I'm a socialist, mostly found this place thanks to word of mouth. Unfortunately users are turning more moderate every day. It's a strange place

Hi. Looking at your recent post history, I think you might be a right-winger pretending to be a socialist who is arguing for not engaging in this election in order to ensure Trump wins. If that is true, you're unpleasant.
With every bonkers reddit/twitter move we get new waves of milquetoast liberals.

I just wish someone would tap the sign of "no, claiming Harris is the answer to all our problems on ml instances won't go well." So tired of threads from .world types crying oppression when they're banned for screeching hate at people but cheer when .world mods kick us for posting a source or some other mundane bullshit.
- Really think your thought process here is gonna get complicated as more people come in. Conflating instances/communities and admin/mods is just really pushing these "groupthink" mentalities, which is just there to distract and argue about (instead of the context of the discussion, much like nationality and race is used!). I just find it extremely weird when people start using "they" and "us" terminology on here, like it's a server connection address protocol and you're using it to categorize people into ideologies and personalities/etc. If you start getting a bunch of right-wing hate-mail from proton e-mail addresses, you don't automatically assume everyone on proton is gonna be right-wing. Probably more weary when that address domain pops into your inbox, but that's just a learned response from your unique experience (which can lessen with time if you allow it).

Does just using Arch Linux and ricing DE for fun count as computer savy?, I don't even know how to code in any languages

Oh, definitely. I always forget how non-tech savvy people generally are. You install a package and they think you’re an Anonymous-level hacker

Yes. I've worked in tech ever since I was able to teach myself enough to hold a job amongst people with CS degrees. I hadn't been on Reddit for a lot of years up until six months before the exodus. I had no account and only consumed. Here feels worth submitting links and discussing things.

I was formally studying Software Development before I came here, and yeah, I've been a sort of techie for the better part of 24 years. Been a LiGNUx user for probably a combined 18 years. If it wasn't for FOSS I probably would have lost interest long ago, because when I recently tried out some new hobbies I was shocked as I was reminded how much other basic activities cost to seriously engage in. I also happened to migrate from that other website you mentioned, but that's not important. I really wanted to simply find other forums that weren't based on one centralized website. Lemmy is kind of a compromise with that for me.

i never heard someone using the term LiGNUx, is it some new way of saying GNU/Linux?
- it's an alternative to GNU/Linux proposed by Richard Stallman. I use it because I don't want to write out as much and I still want to differentiate from my use of Android's OS which is also technically Linux but it's not GNU.

Yup. Techie, but with other interests. There are dozens of us.

Edit: gave up on Twitter and Reddit after being early adopter of both. Moved over to Fediverse and not regretting it one bit. All good.

I'm a little of both, I joined for escaping the reddit blackout shutdown, but I stayed for the advantages of the fediverse. I grew up working with a lot of proprietary software, and I've had growing pains as I've grown bitter about proprietary software over time. I've been self hosting, working on migrating my machines to Linux, and trying to find workable alternatives to everything.

Edit: yes I'm quite techy, a DevSecOps/software engineer. I worked with Linux a long time through VMs and containers, but gaming and Adobe kept me from having a daily driver machine for more than a little while. I don't think I'll ever fully escape Windows because I'm a big .NET developer and work with a lot of legacy code, but I'm more than happy to leave that to a QEMU VM.

I like doing tech stuff as a hobby yeah. Don't remember why I signed up for Lemmy but I have been aware of it for years before I signed up. I think I wanted to have a place to talk about FOSS but also in a community that was generally aligned with my political views (hence my decision to sign up for lemmy.ml)

Username checks out, lol. Glad you found a place!

People referring to themselves as huge Nerds or Geeks are usually the ones that would like to be, but simply aren't, while those rigidly fighting these labels are the real bad ones as I observed.

I'm a tech person and I still use reddit

90% of people who joined Lemmy (or the fediverse in general) are tech savvy enough to wrap their head around the concept of federation.

Is it really so tough? It’s the very similar to email providers, and who doesn’t understand those?
- I work in a computer shop and talk to regular computer users all day everyday.
  
  The average user might know what a browser is. Most don't know that the Internet is outside of their computer.
  
  Real quotes like this happen everyday: "I just get on the green one to check my Google". Translation: I check Gmail using the Edge browser.
  
  It took me 25 minutes the other day to explain what video chat was and that FaceTime is only one kind of it, and it's only available on Apple devices, of which an HP laptop is not.
  
  Do not underestimate the computer illiteracy of the common person.
- It isn't tough at all, and anyone who says the concept is can't wrap their mind around it is either a Luddite or is willfully dismissive.
but do you need to understand that

I'm not a tech person. Art and craft is my thing. I joined Lemmy after the Reddit API issue.

Not a tech person. Working on my PhD in theoretical computer science.

okay 🥲🧻😤😭

I looked up "Reddit alternatives", but I also work with computers/tech as a living.

Yes, here to talk to nerdy people for the most part

Also beats doom scrolling on Instagram or reddit

I'm just a regular person. I'm learning everyday about the fediverse, what its capable of. But its actuality only around 3-4years since I got into this rabbit hole. I used to in my younger days to think that FOSS is to nerdy😄im excited to get more into the FOSS and Fediverse world!

We’re glad to have you! The more the merrier

It depends on the community, but in general people on Lemmy love FOSS. The linux community is very helpful and friendly (although headstrong). Moderation depends on your instance (.ml is quite politically motivated). Privacy on the platform is non existent due to how the software works, but in general, people here do care about privacy related topics.

That is true but doesn't necessarily mean you're a tech person. I don't consider myself one, in fact I come here for help when I have questions or issues. I do appreciate foss and privacy but I'm not hardcore on either. I've certainly known a lot of people with even less understanding than me about tech, but I don't think I qualify as a tech myself and I believe there are many others here in a similar situation as me
- True, I didn't actually answer the question. I suppose it's because yes, I am a tech person. I am a senior systems engineer and software developer with a career of over 20 years. I have run my own tech company for 10 of those years, and recently went back to work in a corporate setting as lead developer for a contact center software company.

Not a tech person. I'm currently a PhD student in civil engineering and wood science.

I promise I’m not being sarcastic when I say wood science sounds fascinating, lol.

What made you decide to use Lemmy?
- Was on reddit for many years, didn't like the direction it was going. Also I'm permabanned from there!

I just answered on the other lemmy post (about are you on here 100%) but I'm not a tech person. I googled alternatives, plus I understood the benefits of federation so that's how I came to Lemmy.