

Parent comment is on mander.xyz. You are on dbzer0.com. The admins for either instance can prevent your account from interacting with the other.
If you start lemmy.ddash.com, the other admin can still block you, but you are the admin of your own instance. You are the second admin.
I would say that the software side all qualifies. You’re setting up the full software stack; that’s definitely self-“something”.
I, personally, would only consider it “self hosting” if I can take a sledge hammer to the bare metal without getting arrested.
But, I acknowledge that is an arbitrary, puritanical distinction. I don’t look down on VPS; they have specific pros and cons, and I use them myself. I just think that “self hosting” includes hardware factors, not just the software.