This is purely for my own personal curiosity, but what’s the main reason you self-host? I say main because I don’t know how to allow multiple answers, if that’s possible at all. For me it’s the last option; because it’s cool. If it’s none of these reasons, absolutely make additional options in the comments.
@ mods, if this in any way breaks any of the rules or just generally detracts from the sub at all, I’ll gladly remove it. Also I didn’t flair it because none of the flairs seem to fit.
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I started out self hosting everything… 20 years ago or so. Then I got swept up in the “cloud” movement and put so many things into the “cloud”.
Today I’m reverting back to how I started, self hosting everything that I can.Mainly privacy, but also because they keep changing and I don’t want to have to worry about them.
I just didn’t feel like it was ‘my’ data anymore.Privacy and control are the main reasons why I host some of my data myself. This choice is closely linked to my values, as I’m not comfortable with the idea of entrusting my data to large companies whose only motivation is to make more money over customer satisfaction. I prefer to keep my autonomy.
However, simplicity is the main reason why I choose not to self-host certain elements. For example, I’m not yet ready to manage the self-hosting of my e-mails.For me it’s a combination of cost, education, and cool factor
Cost and privacy. Currently selfhosting adguardhome. Something like nextdns or controld cost like $35-40/year. Mine cost nothing monetarily since its hosted on oracle cloud free tier. Only costed me like an hour or two of my time to set it up. Plus i don’t trust them enough to not sell my browsing habit.
I second this. My journey started with hosting Adguard Home. I needed an adblocker that would not need to run on my phone. Then, as I expanded, I discovered an entire world out there, that fulfills all of the OP’s choices. Now I run 2 separate servers, running a host of services. My wife, not a very tech-savvy person, also loves them as they are so simple, easy to use, and don’t randomly change.
TL;DR: Started out with a specific need, expanded for all of the above reasons and more.
all of the above + more???
I started for education, around 20 years ago. Then, the “main” reason shifted to cost for a short period, and is now privacy (albeit education and cost still being in line :-))
Stuff can disappear or stop being free at any time for no reason, with no notice.
Can I do all of the above?
Sheesh could have made it top 2 or 3. Talk about tough
i’ve got extra gear so why not put to good use?
Cost is kind of in the grey zone for data/media hoarders. Like, I bought two 16tb HDDs and that cost me a pretty penny. I could have used that same amount of money for streaming services (or whatever) and relieve myself of the pain of tinkering. Partially, it’s about saying fuck you to the giant corpos in my own little way, and a little bit is about just knowing how to get what I need without paying for them which feels neat. Sometimes I feel a little guilty doing this but most media are shit anyway, and I buy the things I really like so that’s that.
There’s no option for “all of the above” and also no option for “I just want to see the results”.
Cool and better - It’s cool when you got something working in your house and it’s better when it’s in your hands, rather than companies which declare limitless free storage for photos and videos, and then after some time and tens of gigabytes they decide to stop uploading more data, limit max size for file and charge you to pay for this service.
Nah, I’ll rather just buy this cool mini PC, components and storage for it once and will not pay infinitely for that sometimes changing crap service.What about “it’s a fun hobby” or “for learning purposes”?
Education, sometimes better service, mostly because I just have fun with and regarding video streaming because I’m not willing to pay for every service existing.