Hey. I really like the idea of the fediverse and Lemmy and would want to know as a beginner/not so experienced regarding selfhosting what would be the best way to get started? I saw there are vps options, but don’t know of I’m looking in the right direction.
I was considering it.
There is the cost for the vps which would have to be separate in “quarantine” from the rest of our stuff.
Extra cost. $6/ Month sounds cheap but it’s not unless you really feel the need to spend 5+ hours a day troubleshooting the tech side.
Then there is the risk of becoming a platform for pedophiles and terrrists.
More time going in that for moderating it and not risk getting our cloud account banned because we hosted illegal stuff - even if it’s by mistake it’s still a risk to get the whole account shut down.
Only way I can see this works is for someone who is knowledgeable enough or has trusted people who are knowledgeable to keep the server clean.
It’s a fun experience I bet but too risky.
Learning to setup infra is a great chance but there are other ways to learn and still not contribute to internet filth or spam.
Better a few big sites than 1000 small unmaintained ones.
You don’t have to allow sign-ups, therefor no modding to do if it’s only you.
That’s what I’m doing. Totally closed sign-ups except for a few close irl friends.
This is what im going to do when I get a spare few hours to set it up.
Im looking at it in the same way as my searx instance. Just a private portal that will have as much uptime as I can maintain, federated with who I want and no one I dont.
Same. I’m glad I found this thread because I was wondering if it was ok to do this.
Like this it does make sense for learning and it can be done locally on a regular PC. No need to even have it running more than 5h/ week.
Only start it when trying something.
There are other more interesting things to learn and setup. Something like a honeypot.
Counterpoint, someone will learn about Debian, ansible, docker, and troubleshooting all of the above.
Personally I’ve run into many bumps along the way, some really dumb and not documented at all. But it was a fun learning experience.
Running a public instance is 100%, definitely not suitable for someone without experience or at the very least a solid background and a sincere willingness to learn and spend time maintaining it.
A private server for yourself and a group of buds?
There isnt really a reason not to give it a go if youre interested.