When you’re using lemmy or mastodon, you don’t have to use the website. You can use an app that goes from your fingers to the server without needing a browser and a website to exchange the information.
So most if not all the instances of the fediverse are also a website if you need to use it. But not every website is an instance of the fediverse.
When a post is made, its sent a group’s inbox, and then the group sends it to the inbox of every user subscribed to it. If I send you a direct message, my server sends it to your inbox.
If you go to a post in your browser, it shows it in the web interface, but if you set whats called a header (some small bits on information sent to a server when you request a page) saying that you’re a server, it gives you a machine readable representation of it.
For example, your comment here looks like this:
{"@context":["https://join-lemmy.org/context.json","https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams"],"type":"Note","id":"https://lemmy.world/comment/17178560","attributedTo":"https://lemmy.world/u/Docker","to":["https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public"],"cc":["https://lemmy.world/c/nostupidquestions","https://startrek.website/u/FriendOfDeSoto"],"content":"<p>In this regard, can a singular website function like a unique instance of the fediverse ?</p>\n","inReplyTo":"https://startrek.website/comment/16837450","mediaType":"text/html","source":{"content":"In this regard, can a singular website function like a unique instance of the fediverse ?","mediaType":"text/markdown"},"published":"2025-05-21T09:55:42.214962Z","tag":[{"href":"https://startrek.website/u/FriendOfDeSoto","name":"@FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website","type":"Mention"}],"distinguished":false,"audience":"https://lemmy.world/c/nostupidquestions","attachment":[]}
So, you could make a post or page of a website like one of these, and then manually send it to everyone’s inbox, but you won’t be able to handle incoming messages.
When you’re using lemmy or mastodon, you don’t have to use the website. You can use an app that goes from your fingers to the server without needing a browser and a website to exchange the information.
So most if not all the instances of the fediverse are also a website if you need to use it. But not every website is an instance of the fediverse.
In this regard, can a singular website function like a unique instance of the fediverse ?
To explain federation (I am terrible at explaining things),
Every user/group on an instance has an inbox and an outbox, for example, yours is https://lemmy.world/u/Docker@lemmy.world/inbox and !nostupidquestion@lemmy.world’s is https://lemmy.world/c/nostupidquestions/inbox .
When a post is made, its sent a group’s inbox, and then the group sends it to the inbox of every user subscribed to it. If I send you a direct message, my server sends it to your inbox.
If you go to a post in your browser, it shows it in the web interface, but if you set whats called a header (some small bits on information sent to a server when you request a page) saying that you’re a server, it gives you a machine readable representation of it.
For example, your comment here looks like this:
{ "@context": [ "https://join-lemmy.org/context.json", "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams" ], "type": "Note", "id": "https://lemmy.world/comment/17178560", "attributedTo": "https://lemmy.world/u/Docker", "to": [ "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public" ], "cc": [ "https://lemmy.world/c/nostupidquestions", "https://startrek.website/u/FriendOfDeSoto" ], "content": "<p>In this regard, can a singular website function like a unique instance of the fediverse ?</p>\n", "inReplyTo": "https://startrek.website/comment/16837450", "mediaType": "text/html", "source": { "content": "In this regard, can a singular website function like a unique instance of the fediverse ?", "mediaType": "text/markdown" }, "published": "2025-05-21T09:55:42.214962Z", "tag": [ { "href": "https://startrek.website/u/FriendOfDeSoto", "name": "@FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website", "type": "Mention" } ], "distinguished": false, "audience": "https://lemmy.world/c/nostupidquestions", "attachment": [] }So, you could make a post or page of a website like one of these, and then manually send it to everyone’s inbox, but you won’t be able to handle incoming messages.