I just joined yesterday, and I've got several recruitment messages and am on the verge of joining a faction right now. I don't know if I should go ahead and start, or if I should wait until I have a group behind me. I realize it'd probably be wiser to wait until I have a group and a ship, but I'm feeling kind of bored, frankly.
So should I throw caution to the wind and pick my starting location, or should I wait until I've joined a faction?
You are advised to wait to pick your starting location until you join a faction, because this means you will be able to start at their HQ, where any decent faction should have either a ship for you or someone within a day's wait to pick you up and take you to a ship of your own.
Starting somewhere other than their HQ could result in a much longer wait until you actually get to start playing and more boredom.