Self-hosting does not make your data safe.
If you don't put in place, review, *and test* backup and recovery plans,,and security measures appropriate to the risk, your data are not "safe".
Your data might be less affected by the whims of third parties, which can be valuable for sure, but don't confuse that with your data being "safe".
And I say this as someone who loves self-hosting.
Any "beginners' guide to self-hosting" which doesn't lead with, or at least focus on, security and resiliency, is getting it wrong, IMHO.
FediThing
in reply to Neil Brown • • •That's why beginners and non-technical people would do best on managed hosting services, not running their own hardware.
My site at growyourown.services is entirely dedicated to managed hosting options for beginners.
It's not a binary choice of selfhosting or not, there's a spectrum of options between these where you get more control but also it gets trickier technically. Easiest is managed hosting, midway is something like Yunohost, hardest (but most directly controllable) is manual installation etc.
Grow Your Own Services – A beginner's guide to creating your own little corner of the Internet
growyourown.servicesRoger BW 😷
in reply to Neil Brown • • •Neil Brown
in reply to Neil Brown • • •I don't want to discourage anyone from looking at self-hosting. As I say, I do it, and *whispers* I enjoy it.
It may - depending on knowledge, learning appetite, and other privileges - be a great choice.
But, beyond some fun tinkering - the moment you start to rely on something that you are self-hosting - something that *matters*, or where a compromise could impact your network more broadly - then it is *really* worth thinking through security and resiliency.
It is *also* worth thinking through backups of stuff on third party services, for sure. But "self-host it" is not necessarily the answer.
Mason Loring Bliss
in reply to Neil Brown • • •The only issue with self-hosting is that we haven't taught people how to go about it. It's abundantly clear that we need to remedy this.
I agree that resiliency and flexibility, backups, security, and visibility are all critical and all interwoven. Let's teach people how to do it and break them free from the shackles of surveillance capitalism as much as we can.
FediThing
in reply to Mason Loring Bliss • • •Mason Loring Bliss
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing We had that in the nineties, and it was eaten by surveillance capitalism.
I don't see how we roll back partway and prevent a repeat of the last thirty years. Even in the Fediverse, look at the rise of mastodon.social. Look at Threads and Bluesky embracing the outward form of distributed networking but not the actual distribution.
What we need is for people to be educated, empowered, and independent, choosing to organize as they wish because it makes sense, not because they don't have an option for lack of knowledge.