I’m curious about this, I have a server that I used to use for a Minecraft server, but it has been shut off for a while.
What would be the downside of hosting your own instance? Maybe it would be automatically defederated from other instances?
Upkeep and domains cost assuming you are opening it to other users, if it gets popular you have to scale up your operation which costs more.
Here’s a fun one… If you are hosting content that could get a DMCA from companies in the US, then you need to make sure you have filed a DMCA Agent with the US Government that handles those claims, section 512 also requires the termination of repeat infringers. In order to qualify for the safe harbor you must have a registered agent.
If you are running it on a home server, read the ToS from your ISP, some do not allow that on home internet service. My ISP has a clause that says my service is for my household use only and that I can’t open it for any sort of “high-volume purpose.”
I’m just spitballing here, it’d probably just be a fun thing for you though, just be aware of that DMCA thing if it catches on though. I have no clue if other countries have similar requirements.
@JelloBrains Great points all around, especially the DMCS liability part… thanks for sharing!
Really good points. I wasn’t planning on opening it up, but if I was these are all great to keep in mind. Thank you.
it won’t be automatically defederated, but you won’t have a cache built up, meaning that some older posts in communities you visit, as well as older comments won’t show up at first.
Though, unless you also want to implement a ruleset and moderate the instance (in addition to doing legal stuff), I would advise keeping it closed to yourself.
The main problems are the headaches you get while setting it up. Kbin is not in a state where you can just run a script and it works.
Yea, I was looking at the documentation for creating your own instance. Obviously it’s not going to be a walk in the park, but I wasn’t sure if there was something like a check for a low user count instance or something that’s not quite so obvious to self-hosters.
The main problem is that you have to do a lot learning by doing, because there are not clear instructions…
Other than the setup I’d say there is no clear drawback to hosting it yourself. I guess its even better than hosting something like mastodon yourself, because the content you want to get is already grouped in communities and you don’t have the annoyingly long discovery phase one has when starting a mastodon serverI’m going to give it a go sometime this week, even if I don’t end up hosting my own instance, I think there’s a lot of valuable information that I’ll learn both about kbin and the fediverse in general. Thank you.
If you have issues, feel free to @ me. I don’t have a answer for everything, but I know of a couple of common mistakes.
And the matrix chat is relatively active@BentiGorlich Great point about the matrix chat, need to get acquainted with that finally as most of the other projects I am involved in are communicating via Discord. Are you administering The Brain Bin?
yeah I got matrix only for that.
Yeah I am :-)@BentiGorlich Nice, well, see you there!
Thanks a bunch!
After the kerfuffle recently about one of the NSFW instances allowing drawn CSAM, I reckon you could get in trouble if you federate with an instance like that if you’re hosting in a jurisdiction where that sort of content is illegal. Or imagine in the future, deepfake celebrity porn may get federated onto your instance and put you in the firing line for hosting that illegal content. NSFW is the most obvious, but I think there could be ramifications for hosting content on your own instance federate din from elsewhere that is illegal in your jurisdiction.
I’m pondering whether to embark on that journey myself, as I have a topic that I feel deserves it’s own instance. I have some experience in setting up websites (going back to forums days with phpBB, vBulletin, and Invision going through WordPress and Pligg) but those were relatively easy as there were installers and plenty of info online. kbin will be a challenge for sure but also an exciting project I feel.
What topic? Just interested.
That’s one thing I’m worried about, too. I haven’t set up a website before, but I believe I have the skill set to figure it out. Just don’t want to waste my time doing all the legwork only for my user experience to be worse due to using my own instance instead of one of the “big” ones.
Thank you. I was curious about this too and casually interested, but now realize I don’t want the liabilities for DMCA, NSFW that people have mentioned.
Yea, I’m glad I asked, it seems like a headache.
But, I’m still interested in creating one just for myself
