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I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Mastodon, is in fact, ActivityPub/Mastodon, or as I've recently taken to calling it, ActivityPub plus Mastodon. Mastodon is not a social network unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning Fediverse made useful by the emotes, web interfaces and vital actors comprising a full social network as defined by the W3C.

Many computer users run a modified version of the Fediverse system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of ActivityPub which is widely used today is often called "Mastodon", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the Fediverse.

There really is a Mastodon, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Mastodon is the server: the program in the Fediverse that gives access to the users and notes. The server is an essential part of the Fediverse, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete Fediverse. Mastodon is normally used in combination with the Fediverse network: the whole system is basically ActivityPub with Mastodon added, or ActivityPub/Mastodon. All the so-called "Mastodon" instances are really instances of ActivityPub/Mastodon.