Absolutely no surprise there. When you keep the barrier to entry low and throw in an algorithm to increase “engagement” via outrage, the soup turns to poison quickly.
This is why every time someone says the Fediverse is “too confusing,” I just smile and nod. That attitude of petulant, lazy, self-imposed gatekeeping is what’s keeping the Fediverse a much nicer place to be.
I use masto.host for my instance. They even give you a web GUI for all the settings. Makes hosting so much easier!
This is why I use a paid host for Mastodon. Six bucks a month gets me my own instance with a custom domain and full admin rights.
There are three of us on said instance, and only two of us are active. It's easier to build a consensus that way. Absolutely none of us want to federate with anything Meta/Facebook. I preemptively blocked threads.net yesterday. To quote Khan Noonien-Singh:
"Let them eat static."
No, Apple Silicon-based Linux is why VMware Fusion exists. 😉 You can currently virtualize ARM-based distros, but if this new release leverages Apple's implementation of ARM for M-series chips better, I'll probably create a new VM and migrate what I need from the old one.