Discussion
I've used my own little private Mastodon instance for almost 7 years now. The host, @mastohost , has honestly been one of the best I've ever dealt with in any hosting.
That said, I'm not sure keeping it is the right approach. I just don't spend much time here anymore.
What's y'all's thoughts on private instances these days? Worth it or have some of the better open instances gotten, well, better?
@chris @mastohost I run my own on a server at home (behind a Cloudflare tunnel). I mostly don’t think about it. But I admit I don’t use Mastodon much these days — reading old-fashioned blog RSS is my current jam, with the rare post to my own blog — and so have considered disabling it. My main concern is that I might miss some critical security update.
@davepeck Nice! and I get that.
I only have 40mb upload available to me here and it flips IPs enough to discourage home hosting. Given all that I really, really like the managed host. I've never once had to think about this instance.
@chris @mastohost I think a private host is useful from the point of having (relatively) better control of your federation. It also has an element of teaching / learning how the fediverse works for an administrator/moderator.
Unfortunately it also introduces the risks and headaches of managing your own instance, even if registration is closed and the userbase is you. You are also on the hook for costs.
At the end of the day, the math came out net negative for me.
@retrofan64 Makes sense. When I was last playing with bigger instances they either had some, uh, ethical issues or they were shutting down forcing constant moves. It seems like the latter has gotten better. The former... I really have no idea. @mastohost
@chris @mastohost It definitely has its limitations but I just can't imagine giving up the control it offers
@roddie I'm just trying to decide if I want my own instance at all or if I want to join a bigger one. If I keep it there's no way I would move away from @mastohost
@chris I self host the hard way on Digital Ocean. Worth it.
But if you want a less maintenance one that could run probably anywhere check our Yonder - I plan to try it later this week
@alpha1beta My host is great. If I keep this host I'll stick with them. More wondering if I want my instance at all.
@chris
For me, its also about freedom of speech/reach. Both, I can say what I want, popular or not, and I don't have to worry about my site cutting off my followers or following if their site - not even the user - behaves badly.
@chris I think having your own domain is worth it and if Mastodon were smart eventually they'd add support for multiple domains on one instance. But especially if you want to look like an expert or put your resume on your website and things of that nature, having your own instance is nice.
@alpha1beta That's a good point considering what I still do. I'll probably just stay here, even if I don't use it as much.
@chris I will stick to my private instance but I might switch away from Mastodon to something else, as Mastodon is a bit of overkill for a single user instance. @mastohost