Most of my friends are in tech, and I think one of them would enjoy hosting their own services if they got into it. Currently, I do most of our hosting, from media servers to game servers, but I think the hardest part is to give people an enticement to host.

For example, maybe they saw the lights automatically come on through the use of home automation like Home Assistant or maybe they wanted to control their own music library.

I think the idea of managing your own hardware and services doesn’t become enjoyable until you’ve already seen the outcome, such as having a resource or service available to you that you didn’t before. When I first got into selfhosting, I also had the problem with identifying what I wanted to host.

How do/did you get your friends interested in selfhosting? What services did they look into hosting themselves?

I’m not going to force someone into a hobby they aren’t interested in, I’m just curious how people brought the conversation up.

Thanks.

  • @sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
    19•2 days ago

    Exactly. Just like any other kind of proselytizing, it’s better to just live by example and answer questions as they come. For example:

    • personal finance - manage finances properly, and people will notice that you’re not stressed about money
    • religion/philosophy - live a worthwhile life and demonstrate the value it brings to your life
    • products - use them and mention them when relevant (e.g. my coworker loves their Remarkable and shills it at every opportunity)

    People aren’t going to change their behavior because you’re pushing something on them, they’ll change their behavior if they see something they want more than what they have. I think more people should self-host, but I don’t get anything from others switching, nor do I have much control over them deciding to switch.