It’s certainly better than all those verification scams that were popping up after a lot of journos migrated off Twitter…
Speaking of bylines, at this time of writing the only comment on the Verge piece claims that “‘Fediverse’ is the dumbest possible name [and] we gotta come up with a different one”. Signed, “DarthLazers” 🤣
I fully agree that your “rules” need adjustment, starting with the fact that you engineered them around your personal dislikes.