This is my first exposure Fediverse :D

I’ve heard of Mastodon around the time Elon bought Twitter, researched it a bit, but I’ve never been a Twitter user so I wasn’t particularly interested. My first real interaction with the Fediverse was 2 days ago when I tried Lemmy :D

If Matrix counts as the Fediverse, then Matrix. I set up Matrix to join the postmarketOS server, then mirrored my OpenRGB Discord over to Matrix with a bridge bot. However, due to lack of moderation and an influx of spammers I ended up making that private.

Then I set up a Mastodon account when Twitter started showing signs of failure and have mostly moved to Mastodon though I still occasionally check up on Twitter.

Now I set up a Lemmy account because of Reddit’s failings. Ready for the Reddit exodus. At least this time we’re moving to something not in the hands of a single corporation that can sell us out like Digg and Reddit did.

I’ve tried Mastodon a few times, and that was my first exposure. The first time, which was I don’t even remember when, I joined mastodon.social, kinda got lost and never found anyone to follow and ended up just forgetting about it.

The 2nd was in 2020 after cth got banned and I remember someone in the Discord mentioning an instance I thought might be more interesting, so I joined it and it was definitely a better experience but again I just ended up forgetting about it after a while. Also when I came back later to check in on things I found the instance no longer existed.

I joined a third time around this time last year when some of my friends decided to join and I’ve used it a little more, but it’s still pretty on and off, so I think part of the problem is just that I’m not super into the Twitter-like style of things. Having to follow individual people ends up feeling kinda tedious and since almost no one only posts things I find interesting, I end up either following no one or following enough people my feed is largely filled with things that don’t interest me.

Aside from Mastodon I haven’t really tried any of the others, but Lemmy definitely seems like it works better for me, preferring to follow topics and interests rather than individual people most of the time. I have actually looked at Lemmy before a few times, and liked it, but found it hard to get over the relative lack of activity, so I hope that’s changing (and it seems like it might be).

Mastodon around four years ago. Couldn’t get into it then (or again more recently when Twitter really started disintegrating), and I think it’s because Twitter-style microblogging just feels conceptually broken for me.

Lemmy solves all the problems I had with both Reddit and Mastodon- just need to spread the word for the next couple of months and hit some kind of critical mass with adoption.

Mastodon around a year ago. Hopped around to a few mastodon instances before finding alternatives. Been running multiple fediverse instances since then (and none of them are mastodon)

Mastodon thanks to the whole Twitter debacle, although I have a hard time knowing if people or entities I follow on twitter are on Mastodon unless I happen to see them mention it. Trying out Lemmy while Reddit is in turmoil, and I’m finding it a better fit to connect to communities. Beginning to get a better understanding of the ‘verse now as a result of knowing about more than one implementation.

Way back when Diaspora was first being developed and people were starting to talk about it.

PeerTube. I was getting really sick of Youtube, heard about it and went exploring.

By the way, Matrix, while it is a federated protocol, isn’t part of the “Fediverse” (a word for federated software using the ActivityPub protocol [edit: and some others, see reply] , which are aimed towards social media rather than instant messaging)

First exposure would probably be identica in 2010. For people getting started, these days I’d suggest less joining a specific platform and more by interest. Books -> bookwyrm , Video -> a Peertube instance, etc.

Probably matrix: I dug a bit into the perotocol and started hosting my own instance. Mastodon followed (but not selfhosted)

Tried lemmy for a bit but didnt like it. Right now i give it another try.

I’ve just come here after the recent decision by Reddit to practically block most 3rd party access to their API.

I had known Mastodon for quite some time but never used it until lots of people came over there from Twitter (which I had never used) and then I set up my own instance.

And now I’ve also set up my own Lemmy instance, I am still using Reddit aswell, but I hope Lemmy gets enough activity for it to be actually useful (seems to be on a good path).

(Yes, I don’t mix Mastodon and Lemmy, because Lemmy just works so different from most other ActivityPub software, it would just confuse me.)

Also I have used Matrix for quite a long time now.

First exposure to federation was Matrix, though I did not fully understand it at first.

First exposure to the fediverse was Mastodon after Twitter imploded.

@Bicyclejohn I think it was when I first heard about Diaspora*. But back then I just didn’t try it. Just heard about it and I thought that I’d get there at some point. Then I heard about Mastodon way back a few years ago, but I didn’t join because I didn’t (and still don’t) like Twitter. Then I decided to test a Facebook alternative (I was for a long time decided to move away from Zuck’s garden and kept adding personal life milestones for this), and here I am, on Friendica 😁