1. Becoming an Earthling
Probably not of interest to most people, but useful to have as a place to point people who ask about this.
If you want to join the earth.li rabble you need to find 2 existing members who will sponsor you. These should be people who know you reasonably well - you're relying on them to convince others who may not have met you that you'd be a good addition. earth.li is a community and it's much easier to turn someone down and let them in later once we know them better than let them in and realize they don't get on with the rest of us.
After you've got your sponsors you need to email noodles@earth.li letting me know who they are and why you'd like to join us. After that you wait while we have a fight that goes off on a tangent and eventually get back on topic about whether or not you're in. Expect a few questions most probably as people try to decide what you're like. It /really/ helps if you've met a reasonable number of us before, though this is getting harder to manage as we spread out (and take over the world..).
All that sounds very negative. We do like new, interesting, blood. Honest. It gives us an excuse to meet up and go to the pub if nothing else.