Pretty familiar. I first learned about the fediverse when I joined Mastodon. I kept it at arms length as just a curiosity until Elon bought Twitter last year, when I switched to Mastodon full time. Since then I joined Pixelfed, Lemmy, Kbin, and checked out Calckey.

My experience matches op pretty much to a t. What I love about all of it is how light and free it feels. I don't feel hemmed in or funneled like I do on other apps.

I became aware of the Fediverse a few years ago...After not developing any traction initially...I left. However, I came back and am pouring more effort into decentralized social media. Kbin and Mastodon are amazing for me now, being able to connect to other instances due to federation, I run into so many interesting people!

I'd been using mastodon somewhat, and I'd heard of Lemmy before but never actually tried it until the initial announcement of the API changes months ago.