Ok, my #introduction to all you fine folk here who know naught of me. I’m an author, researcher, historian, cinema, music & comic-book junkie, ABC alumni (albeit briefly) and I speak in public. Loudly. I’ve written 12 books over the past 20 years, and about double that unpublished, for a number of publishers, including The Guyra Ghost Mystery, Monster: The Story of Len Lawson and Australian Gothic: The Untold Story of the 1929-’31 Dracula Stage Tour "Down Under" (to name but three). I can be found on Amazon, so go ahead and buy - royalties pay my bills. And I’ve written more magazine articles and on-line material than I can remember, and have lately been published in Inkspot, the official magazine of the Australian Cartoonist Association.

I am rather passionate about fairness and I do not tolerate idiots easily. I’ve got no time for racism, misogyny or ultra right wing religious hate talk. I talk about almost anything really, from #auspol politics to, well, you make it. I’m devoted to my cat, Chika.

Here be the cover of my next book, Terror Down Under.

♥️ Welcome to the Mastodon network of federated servers (aka the #Fediverse).

I’ve been here one week. Interested in #fedilaw, #heterodox economics, #Corruption, #bankinglaw, #SCOTUS, #TaxJustice, #progresssive policies, #poetry, #knitting, #nonfictionbooks, #humanism, #theater, #irony, #shakespeare, #GenX

Feeling like Julie McCoy “Your Cruise Director.” #askmeanything

So it seems that trolls of the Trumpist frozen peach variety, mostly those who set up their own Pleroma instances when Parler got taken down, are undertaking a semi-coordinated effort to target journalists who sign up on Mastodon for a couple of reasons...

* Trump has taught them that professional journalism and critical thinking are elitist and bad so lets harass them until they go away

* they are trying to prove some sort of point that this place can be just as toxic as their beloved Frozen Peach in Chief's microblogging site

If you are a journo and you get dogpiled by trolls DO NOT ENGAGE with them at all! Immediately:

1. REPORT them to your instance mods, THEN
2. Block them

Step 1 is very important! This isn't twitter or facebook...mods will take swift action, and if they don't you can migrate instances to better moderated ones...

Hi, I'm Gadget Frog! I'm here to voice my opinions on various different topics (mostly om technology at the moment) I believe that people have a right to privacy, and I support FOSS projects. Obsessed with all things animation. Open to respectful discussions about things.

I'm trying to stay fairly private on this account.

I'm really just here to voice my opinions and discuss things with people 😄

#introductions