Asklemmy

Female, old, non-techie but in the one fourth of people in my office who can set up a printer.

I'm here because I got permabanned on Reddit haha. Chuds mass reported me multiple times and Reddit got sick of it, I guess. Probably for the best, the website is a true shithole nowadays and absolutely overrun with literal children.

I'm here for shitposting, anime titties, and saying disproportionately cruel things about rich people.

You'll find a lot of FOSS developers on here. This is a general community and all that, but there is a large Linux and open source software interest here. Some people simply don't understand things like the scope of FOSS software in terms of both users and developers, so that can create some tension at times. There are a lot of experts and radical thinkers in this space. You may or may not find help on super niche questions, but say something wrong or poorly, and you're likely to find the experts soon thereafter. For instance, I am confident enough to ask advanced course computer science questions and get useful answers here. I find this place useful for second sourcing info from AI that I find plausible but sketchy. Like I got into fermentation but have no interest in the whole commercialized nonsense hobby junk. Almost all sources are poisoned by commercial interests and misguided nonsense. Just asking here gets lots of people with practical knowledge on fundamental techniques from long before it was some commercialized hobby.

The group behind the fediverse is very diverse and that diversity is reflected in the user space here in Lemmy.

Nice try Mr. FBI

Would be cool to do a census.

well for me:

• just passed 50 last month
• been kicking around 'PCs' since the vic-20
• buun using linux since Mandrake Helios (6.1)
• have self hosted all sorts (including email for nearly 10 yrs, not any more other than a relay for my lemmy)
• had a mastodon instance for about 2-3 years - but use mastodon.nz
• spun up my instance of lemmy just as the exodus started
• been into tinkering with electronics from childhood

I guess that puts me in the the tech group that seems very common here

other groups that seem well represented are the 'left' and lgbqt+

I’m a guy whose high school credits weren’t going to transfer so I got my GED (no diploma) and took university classes for a couple years. I got a job in tech based entirely on being self taught. I’m a cis white male, so I’ve had a lot of structural advantages.

Here’s the really fucked up part: I now moved over to a gubment job because I was uniquely qualified. None of my peers could believe it cause I’m a socialist who loathes the USA political system. But a job’s a job and this one is cushy af.

2 cats and live with my partner. Musician (as a hobby). All that stuff.

It's mostly nerds who had the spine to migrate from Reddit rather than continueing to feed this machine that clearly brings no good for anyone.

I'm 51 and have been neck deep in tech since I can remember. On Linux since RedHat Halloween. The fediverse reminds me of the early days of the internet when it was all Usenet, IRC, GeoCities, etc.

Here representing the suburban moms.

I am probably blowing the statistics way out, but I'm 71, a podcaster on three shows, no degree, no computer experience except personal, poor, living in a trailer, in Eastern Tennessee.

Libs

I'm here!

The median age seems to be much higher than other platforms if i had to guess its around 30-35. There are a good deal of tech people, Foss people and activists. There seems to be a balance of gender( based on nothing but vibes). Lots of lgbt people and communities.

There is a culture of creating art, technology and building spaces. There is a culture of inclusiveness and working together. Calling out bad behaviors in people, companies and governments.

Also cats and coffee.

I am only including the lemmy that is within my own federation. I am aware there is fringe communities of extremists and vile people but I've had very little interaction with them so I can't say how much of an impact they have on lemmy as a whole.

Lemmy has an abnormally tech literate and FOSS "aware" (there's got to be a better term but I'm blanking) user base. The community is small enough that recognizing people isn't unheard of so we tend to be more polite overall - with a smaller community there's less of a sense of anonymity and more social accountability. Oh, we tend to be rather left leaning but, to be honest, "The universe has a well known liberal bias".

Other than those factors we're a mix of folks.

That’s a good question. From what I gather, Lemmy (and most of the Fediverse) is an alternative to something, with less focus on the money/advertising. So I would guess most people are looking for an alternative way to connect about common interests. And because it’s not the easiest path for social media, I would guess most people have a desire for agency/self-reliance.

And because the whole Fediverse seems to be a different way of approaching social connecting, it takes a little more understanding of computer technology, so I would also guess most people have a least a higher than average affinity for computer technology. Linux and Programming Humor are larger communities.

That said, I have enjoyed a somewhat active participation about woodworking, gardening, jokes, news, medical updates, etc. Like mentioned in another comment, the different instances will have somewhat different norms and practices.

Since lemmy is decentralized, the demographics are going to vary greatly depending on the instance. You’d have to create a pretty generalized poll and then post to most of the major instances to get anything close to even a general read.