The Web has always been social. It's a network people use and communicate with. When I created my first website in the 90s, it had visitors. I didn't know who they were, except for those who sent me email. There has been forums, BBSs, IRC, since the 1980s.
So from the social perspective it does not really matter where your "instance" is, because it's already a part of a huge network. Your "instance" can be a website, a social media platform, or anything of a sort. It's a presence online.
The ActivityPub protocol that Mastodon, WordPress, Pixelfed and many other platforms online use, actually has endpoints called "inbox" and "outbox". The logic is very similar to email, but more real time.
So for those who criticize Mastodon or Fediverse as "difficult" or something that has no "reach" I want to say that any form of communication online (be it a normal website or Mastodon or whatever) has all the reach potential in the world. You just need to make yourself heard. We're too used to corporate platforms, money making machines and algorithms to do the work for us. It distorts the whole picture.
Centralized platforms have no future, but the social web is eternal.
@rolle I generally agree with what you write above. I started my personal site (although the url has changed a couple of times), I have traced back my sites to at least 1998.
But it's sad the world wide web is not only limited of the tools to reach the internet, it is also limited, forvidden, by governments. Even non-commercial sites are blocked for many persons around the world. That is a tragic development I did not think of when I went online. Also the social web is sadly limited.
