JanetteSpeyerQuestion for fedi experts. What are the benefits of hosting your own instance? #fediverse #mastodon
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Rafael Caricio@janettespeyer I don't have to be worried about following rules. Not that I will do anything illegal or such. I have full ownership of my online presence. I won't be surprised by people shutting down their server for some reason, etc.
@rafaelcaricio that part is appealing. Doing your own thing. Is the server set-up difficult? I am not much of a tech girl
Amin Hollon 🏳I've found GoToSocial to have a very easy set-up, but I've heard heavier platforms like Mastodon can be much more difficult.
@janettespeyer In that case I would suggest to use a hosting provider like https://masto.host/ It cost almost the same as a generic hosting service, but it’s specific to Mastodon. You won’t need to have much technical expertise.
I have a server and all myself, but that is not straightforward. At some point I might also move to a hosting service just to offload the work I have to do myself. From time to time I have to dedicate some time to upgrading and maintaining everything. Lately, more frequently than not, I simply don’t have the time.
Much like knowing how to bake a cake. I know how to make it, but I might not want to bake it myself every time I want to eat a slice.
@rafaelcaricio love this idea! Thanks
We Distribute@janettespeyer The main benefits we've seen are two-fold: self-reliance, and control.
Broadly speaking, relying on other people to administrate a server can be a bit of a compromise. You might have a great admin team, with dedicated moderators, tremendous uptime, and clear community policies. Or, you might not have any of those things.
The main critique of joining a community instance vs self-hosting can be summed up as the following question: how comfortable are you in having someone else make decisions on your behalf?
Broadly speaking, relying on other people to administrate a server can be a bit of a compromise. You might have a great admin team, with dedicated moderators, tremendous uptime, and clear community policies. Or, you might not have any of those things.
The main critique of joining a community instance vs self-hosting can be summed up as the following question: how comfortable are you in having someone else make decisions on your behalf?
@hello and there lies the question. I personally have been using Twitter-X for over 16 years but I am more concerned about my clients and their liabilities. Right now I am ok where I am but if I want to get my clients onto Mastodon I must make sure they are reasonably protected. I did notice that POTUS does not have a dedicated server. Weird. Thanks everyone here for your insights #fediverse
@janettespeyer Not sure if you had seen this piece, but we've put some thought into the subject: https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/us-government-hosted-fediverse/
It's definitely doable, a big chunk of EU political bureaus and offices are on government-hosted Mastodon instances. The biggest challenge is probably going to be finding a quality vendor that understands compliance, competent moderators to run the service, and onboarding resources and training for social media teams.
It's definitely doable, a big chunk of EU political bureaus and offices are on government-hosted Mastodon instances. The biggest challenge is probably going to be finding a quality vendor that understands compliance, competent moderators to run the service, and onboarding resources and training for social media teams.
@hello amazing thanks. I am collecting all of this info.
Eric@janettespeyer Stability, mostly. I'm guaranteed a persistent post history all under one account, and am less susceptible to instance admins burning out or defederating from instances over petty drama.
@eric petty drama is a deal breaker.
adminFull control over your data.
Full control over other servers you block or if you want to read everything (a server can censor you)
You can also use the domain name you want.
Timo Zimmermann@janettespeyer @JustineSmithies for me in no particular order:
- no drama and which instances get blocked is my choice (I don’t mind Threads for example, easy way to follow a few people I cannot follow right now)
- secured funding
- control over my identity and account
- home timeline is literally friends and family, my experience couldn’t be more curated and the most I’d accept to see as home timeline
sebato learn new skills
bash programming, firewalling using databases, etc
Practice the Bourn Again Shell is a lot fun. Just my rubbish english doesn’t get better. đź¤
@seba may e rubbish English (not entirely true) but genius tech
Bill StatlerFreedom to set your own rules, freedom to choose a platform other than Mastodon and the other popular options, and you learn a whole lot of stuff regardless of whether you really had the time for that. :-)
shellsharks@janettespeyer I talk a little bit about why I started my own instance here https://shellsharks.com/own-my-social.
To list some benefits though...
- De-platforming / censorship resistance
- "Owning" your data
- You get a vanity Fediverse handle
- Customization
- Control (over moderation, settings, everything)
- Fediverse instances have *died* in random ways in the past (domain seizure, server backup fault, etc…). You mitigate this by running your own.
@shellsharks thanks. You build an excellent case. If you are a company you almost “have to” own your own instance #fediverse #instances #domain
@janettespeyer đź‘Ť I also went ahead and added these points here for (easier) future reference https://shellsharks.com/own-my-social#benefits-of-a-personal-fediverse-instance
@shellsharks aww, veryy helpful. I’ll read a couple of times. Thanks a lot
crossgolf_rebel - kostenlose Kwalitätsposts@janettespeyer
You are your own boss
you can decide for yourself which instances you block or not
can write "what you want" (as long as it doesn't go beyond the bounds of decency)
You are your own boss
you can decide for yourself which instances you block or not
can write "what you want" (as long as it doesn't go beyond the bounds of decency)
@janettespeyer
You are your own boss
you can decide for yourself which instances you block or not
can write "what you want" (as long as it doesn't go beyond the bounds of decency)
You are your own boss
you can decide for yourself which instances you block or not
can write "what you want" (as long as it doesn't go beyond the bounds of decency)
the_halmaturus@crossgolf_rebel @janettespeyer small addition: and you can decide which of the many possible access points to the Fediverse you like to host and use yourself
@crossgolf_rebel thanks. This is helpful. I am getting an education
Mike Fraser@janettespeyer You own and control every stitch of data you put on it. Plus you can pick your own domain and username. If you use something like masto host it's super easy.
@mike great reasons
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