I’ve heard a few people on here are starting their own personal instances so they can federate independently with different instances without relying on a larger, third-party instance. If I wanted to do this, would I need to own an actual server, separate from my PC?
Your own PC is technically possible, depending on if your ISP allows it. However I really don’t recommend that. I started with a $5 per month VPS and upgraded to a $10 option now that my instance has dozens of users.