Trying to wrap my head around the fediverse. Is each instance like another person with a server? Could that person just shut it down whenever they wanted to?

Are there any companies that have invested in hosting Lemmy/ other fediverse servers?

Sorry I’m sure I messed up some of the terminology, I hope my questions make sense! I love the idea of the fediverse as I understand it, but I like to dig into these details.

  • EndOfLine@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Is each instance like another person with a server?

    Yeah. I would assume that most, if not all, open instances are going through a 3rd party hosting service, but nothing stopping them from being hosted on hardware in somebodies home.

    Could that person just shut it down whenever they wanted to?

    Yup. Anytime and for any reason. It might cause a moment of disruption, but the beauty of federation is that you can always setup an account on a new instance or create your own.

    Are there any companies that have invested in hosting Lemmy/ other fediverse servers?

    Yes. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Facebook federating their Threads services. I’m sure that there are others.