janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

Question for fedi experts. What are the benefits of hosting your own instance?

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@janettespeyer
🤔

  • set your own moderation standards
  • customize post limits, image/video storage
  • choice of server software (Mastodon, Misskey, Friendica, ...)
  • vanity domain name / identity verification
  • control of physical resources / downtime / reliability
    @AndyScott
berniethewordsmith,
@berniethewordsmith@masto.es avatar

@TerryHancock @janettespeyer @AndyScott I can host my mom and be her VIP tech support/ always-on-call express lane / specialized moderation team

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@berniethewordsmith @TerryHancock @AndyScott :clapping: :blobcatmelt:

crossgolf_rebel,

@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)

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@crossgolf_rebel thanks. This is helpful. I am getting an education

shellsharks,
@shellsharks@shellsharks.social avatar

@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.

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@shellsharks thanks. You build an excellent case. If you are a company you almost “have to” own your own instance #fediverse #instances #domain

shellsharks,
@shellsharks@shellsharks.social avatar

@janettespeyer 👍 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

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@shellsharks aww, veryy helpful. I’ll read a couple of times. Thanks a lot

fallenhitokiri,
@fallenhitokiri@social.screamingatmyscreen.com avatar

@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
janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@fallenhitokiri @JustineSmithies thanks 🫶

wbbdaily,
@wbbdaily@flipboard.social avatar
janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@wbbdaily thanks!

mike,
@mike@thecanadian.social avatar

@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.

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@mike great reasons

seba,
@seba@social.coyote.name avatar

@janettespeyer

to 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. 🤭

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@seba may e rubbish English (not entirely true) but genius tech

eric,
@eric@social.ericwbailey.website avatar

@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.

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@eric petty drama is a deal breaker.

hello,
@hello@social.wedistribute.org avatar

@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?

janettespeyer,
@janettespeyer@flipboard.social avatar

@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

m3t00,

@janettespeyer @hello

If you do your own instance you can pretty much make it look any way you want.

ex. https://transfem.social/

hello,
@hello@social.wedistribute.org avatar

@m3t00 @janettespeyer Yeah, customization is a big positive. A lot of people have created themes as well as custom frontends for Mastodon, and a variety of other Fediverse platforms.

hello,
@hello@social.wedistribute.org avatar

@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.

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