Because they can?
Because they want to learn?
Because they haven’t found an instance they liked?
Because they want to create an instance for some specific interest and existing instances aren’t the right fit?
Because they want a private instance for their family/friends?
Because they want to use it a bit like a client, deciding which instances they interface with?
Because virtually every instance is simply someone hosting their own and letting random strangers use it.also
because they want to be in charge instead of being at the mercy of someone else?
like I just got a 3-day ban from some instance or community because something I said made the owner mad, and I imagine if I ran my own instance and community I wouldn’t have been banned 😄
Then you simply would’ve been defederated.
Defederated? What does that mean? And by who?
The Fediverse consist of many separate servers, running different software. But they all communicate, they’re a federation of different social networks. This way people on a Mastodon instance can comment on threads on a Lemmy instance, etc.
But similar to banning offending users from communities, there are protections built into the federation. If, for whatever reason, an admin of instance A decides that a specific instance B should not be part of their Fediverse, they can defederate it. Meaning their instance A will no longer pull data (communities, posts, comments) from that instance B. They’re effectively muting the offending instance B from their side.
Users from that instance B can still post/comment on instance A, but users of instance A will never know, as instance A never requests that data. Users on other instances, federated with both instances, will still see it and can decide for themselves of they want to keep it that way.So if you insist on being a twat on the internet people may stop listening.
Random ideas off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more:
- they believe in the platform and know they have the skills to help it grow
- they’re tech enthusiasts and it’s basically hobby time
- general curiosity about how it all works from the admin side, some people love to learn new stuff
- spotted a gap in the market for an instance around a particular theme
- they want a solo / friends and family only instance to avoid defederation issues and generally curate the feed
- they want control over their own data and experience
- they happen to own the most perfect domain name and just need something to do with it
Why would anyone dm a ttrpg or start a club???
Not sure why all the comments are condescending. I’m trying to learn more about it since I might do the same.
I must admit that the way your question is worded did initially make me think you were implying that doing so was crazy.
However it definitely can also be read the way I think you intended. And since this is ELI5, the answers could probably be a bit kinder tbh.
FWIW, I would maybe change your question to read “What are some good reasons a person might want to…” :-)
I reworded my question to be safe. :)
I guess you could consider it condescending but you did not ask like how but why. Why ride a bike. Why own a dog. why get out of bed. Why questions are something that really is up to the individual.
