Didn't everyone want to defederate entirely from Threads? That would have kept out more people than calling them "normies" would, I imagine.
I personally don't care either way though; on one hand, I like Lemmy as it is now so don't care if there's a huge influx of Threads users... but on the other hand, while with more users you're definitely going to get more garbage, it also brings in a few more diamonds.
I come from IRC and message boards during the dial up days, so I'm adaptable.
For the last one: Spock stated that the previous mission they hadn't stayed as long as they were when the effects started happening.