I joined Mastodon in 2019, and right off the bat, I was very intrigued by the possibility of running your own instance under your own domain. I originally wanted to setup an instance for A Possible Space, similar to what Panic or Tapbots have done. This didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, and soon enough I found an instance after my own heart: Merveilles, a wonderful community of thoughtful and creative people.