Honest advice for journos:

In case any of y'all see this, I thought I'd give you some advice.

1. You have entered a dark forest. Nothing is as it seems, and nobody is going to tell you the truth.

2. Every instance admin is a volunteer, which means every instance admin is a power freak, they're not getting paid to do it so lording over their users is their only compensation.

3. You are not well liked, your profession has a reputation for carrying water for the establishment, people here are anti-establishment, you will be bullied.

4. Instances on the network range from "zero moderation" to "extreme moderation" - On zero moderation instances, you will get bullied, on extreme moderation instances you will get cancelled and banned. If you think nothing you do warrants a ban, see #2.

5. Heavily moderated instances LOOK like happy little villages, and for ordinary users they often are. But beneath the veil is a byzantine labyrinth of inter-instance politics which as a high profile celebrity, you will find yourself wrapped up in. When you hear "everyone's nice, but there are some bad people to watch out for", this is the Party Initiation Song.

6. (Near) zero moderation instances look a lot crazier, but the politics is generally a lot more sane. You will need very thick skin to last on any of these instances because of #3.

7. If you did this to avoid the shame of paying Elon $8.00, honestly, why? Elon may annoy you, but you can at least negotiate with him. The Fediverse has no Elon, it will take your readers and spread them across hundreds of instances. While you get bullied by the right, you will be scandalized and cancelled by the left, and they will organize to get you blocked from the people you brought to them. If you're here to further your career, just go give Elon his $8.00.

BUT if you make the effort to stay, you will develop as a human being. The Fediverse will challenge you, it will grind you down. It will make you question your self-importance, the importance of "branding", of image, the importance of words themselves. There are no real celebrities on the Fedi and I expect you will soon see why, but you can register with a pseudonym, shed your self-image, and learn to fit in as a regular person. The Fediverse is the closest thing we have to a true collaborative cognition, a Hive Mind. You can help shape the Fediverse but the Fediverse will shape you.