@eidolon@Forestofenchantment@Inginsub@suquili it's where the marsey emojis come from. nekobit made a fedi instance for it for a bit in 2022. I didn't know what it was either until after that. I don't really know that much about it or follow what goes on with it, just know it exists
There are a LOT of fedi posters who came from every fringe corner of the internet. KF, 4chan, ED, various smaller message boards and internet groups, you name it. Especially after the implosion of imageboards (which was 50/50 hotwheels and his starfucking crusade, and the "new owner" situation Jim talked about years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qVTR8vU71Y
@eidolon@Forestofenchantment@Inginsub@suquili The problem is, 4chan is basically crawling with feds and subversive jannies who just like other websites that have notoriously shit moderation, allow all of it to happen. It's been this way since GG, even probably a little before. You can't VPN post anymore unless you identify yourself with the pass. Every board is flooded with spam and low-IQ discussions.
Furthermore, altboards died after Jim handling the events of 2019 very poorly, the webring chaos, and then the schism of Jim and Mark (owner of /v/ who started 8chan.moe as a response to him), and many altboards either being literally dead or having CSAM (real or AI generated, people with the latter have been prosecuted the same) spam if they're not.
While the fedi is not anonymous by any means (especially if you use your known identities, or more importantly host your own thus linking your identity to a server you run), it does have the advantage of actually allowing you to discuss things with less corporate censorship or jannies shutting down/banning people, and this is why people from that part of the internet are using it now.