Hey everyone,

I just wanted to take a second and thank all of you who use the site.

A little history of the site:

The VPS this site runs on was originally created so I could do the Linux Upskill Challenge years ago as I was just starting to get into Linux and FOSS at the time. Not too long after that I discovered Lemmy which was in its infancy. I joined lemmy.ml and after a year or so decided the software was mature enough that I felt like I could take a stab at starting my own instance. There were still only maybe 100 or so users on the few lemmy instances out there. I wanted a region-themed instance and eventually decided on midwest.social as the domain. I actually had another server for Ohio (where I live) but it wasn’t used a ton and I didn’t like paying for 2 VPS’s so I shut that one down after a while.

Eventually, reddit went public and made a bunch of their users mad and lots of people started jumping ship to Lemmy, and that’s when my userbase (as well as other servers’ userbases) increased drastically. I remember suddenly one day I just started getting email, after email, after email of people applying to join the site.

Nowadays, the stats say there are around 2.5k users on midwest.social. I’m not sure how many of those are active but it’s still kinda nuts for me. I think the thing I’m most shocked about is just how nice almost everyone is that has joined. Even when there are technical issues they’re not ripping my head off.

It’s a unique experience to see so many people using a website you started in your spare time. I never get tired of it, although I do tend to forget there are more of you than I realize lol. Some days I’m like, “there’s gotta be only like 15 people using my site” only to be reminded that it’s definitely larger than that.

Anyways, thank you to everyone who uses the site and thank you to all who donate as well!

  • dmention7@midwest.socialEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    Recent “refugee” from lemm.ee checking in to say thanks for your serverice! I knew going in that joining a smaller instance may not be be quite as polished of an experience as one of the giant ones, but keeping things local and de-centralized seems like a decent tradeoff. As others have mentioned, this is a good reminder for me to drop a donation to keep the lights on!

  • halcyonloon@midwest.socialEnglish
    4·
    7 days ago

    Thank you for keeping things running and for taking the time to write up this post too! I’m grateful that this is where I landed.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.socialEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    Thank you!

    Is there a reason Midwest.social is hijacking image links and rewriting posts to redirect externally hosted images s.t. they link through midwest.social? It makes asset losing much slower, and must be putting more load on the servers.

    I only noticed it recently, so it feels like a recent change. e.g. before submitting

    and then the source after submitting

    It’s actually editing the content of my comment and changing URLs to proxy everything through Midwest.social - why?

  • Ascrod@midwest.socialEnglish
    25·
    9 days ago

    Thank you so much for making this place and keeping it running! This is the only “region-oriented” social site that I use and the experience has been great! Really feeling at home with the other Midwesterners here. :)

  • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
    16·
    9 days ago

    Thank you for everything you do, seahorse!

    I have a handful of recurring donations, and this one makes me especially happy.

  • degen@midwest.socialEnglish
    12·
    9 days ago

    I didn’t know our very own seahorse was a Lemmy OG. But uh, yeah, we should be thanking you!

    There’s always been something about Midwest vibes for me, so I’m glad we can all show up and have a flourishing instance. It’s still so wild that we have some top comms on here!

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    8·
    9 days ago

    I’m not even on your site but I see the instance a lot, so it’s a definite contributor to the fediverse as a whole. Thanks for being one of those who is supporting the cause of federation.

  • 7toed@midwest.socialEnglish
    7·
    9 days ago

    I started on LW, changed to here for a more local feed but I’ve been astonished that every midwest user I’ve seen has been a gift to humanity (and my time online). So thank you for harboring such a fantastic community, it’s a nice change from larger instances. I will continue doing what I can to support and will have my eye out in case more is needed :D

  • DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    9 days ago

    Everything I see from this instance is always so chill. You’ve managed to create and maintain a positive community online, which is honestly a real achievement. I’m not even from the midwest but I love the vibe here. Thanks for doing what you do!

  • adhocfungus@midwest.social
    English
    6·
    9 days ago

    Thanks for hosting, I really appreciate it. Definitely a great introduction to the fediverse for someone who hadn’t heard of it before.

  • only_in_ohio@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    9 days ago

    Although I’ve joined another instance, I am still grateful for your service! Remember folks, Lemmy works best if decentralized

  • BakerBagel@midwest.socialEnglish
    61·
    9 days ago

    I appreciate having this unique instance for us. I’m bummed i gotta share it with those people up north, but there’s nowhere else i would rather be. I originally signed up from lemmy.world when reddit killed erd party apps, but upon learning that there was a Midwest instance i had to jump on it. Thanks for maintaining this small space for the best part of America.