That's not a Mastodon instance, that's a(n incomplete) implementation of ActivityPub, the underlying federation protocol.
It's definitely interesting to read how ActivityPub actually operates, but conflating the two may give the wrong idea.
It's definitely interesting to read how ActivityPub actually operates, but conflating the two may give the wrong idea.
(Even if it weren't that easy, I'd still agree that referring to it as a "Mastodon instance" is both wrong and weird, regardless of how popular and relatable Mastodon is.)
But it's clickbait that worked, so maybe discussing that is equally pointless.