phantasmal_yearnest is a user on octodon.social. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
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How do I start a Mastodon instance?
Is it difficult?
Is it expensive?
How much customizing of both the style and function is possible?
@phantasmal_yearnest Not that expensive. Some of your other questions might be answered here too.
Honestly, I have no coding/programming experience, but I had a cool idea for an instance that I'd like to try.
@phantasmal_yearnest Same. That's why I thought this was a cool option. I don't have any need for it right now, but I'm excited about it for the possibilities. Maybe someday.
@phantasmal_yearnest One of the easiest ways I know of, whether you do code or not. As for customization, I have no idea. But this seems like a great way to do it: https://masto.host/