I had been keeping an eye on Lemmy for years and years. I'm an open source, federated service enthusiast so Lemmy was always just something I was aware of.

I'd been on the microblogging side of Fedi for a while and was aware there was a federated reddit-like, but my initial impression of it was that it's a long way from getting enough of a userbase to sustain the kind of niche hobby/fandom communities I used reddit for.

But once reddit's API scandal happened, I dropped it and decided to check out the alternative. Still feel like it isn't really there yet, but eh, I'm here anyway 'cause I'm not going back.

I actually prefer Mbin, but I found out about the Fediverse after searching for reddit alternatives when I heard about the API bullshit Sp*z was planning.

Don't remember the exact date now but I believe I learned about Lemmy either slightly before or during the first wave of Twitter/Mastodon migration... I was trying to find Reddit alternatives, and quickly realized that the only option is a thing that is run by Tankies where the most popular posts only gathered fewer than 100 upvotes each

... anyway the statement did not age well. I've been lurking on Lemmy for the past year but haven't really registered an account so

Banned from Reddit for suggesting that certain cult members should in fact drink the flavor aide.

Heard about Lemmy from Mastodon and I found out about that from Hackernews.