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.

  • gccalvin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    62·
    2 months ago

    That’s fair. I’m making the comparison to other hobbies. If someone is not interested in roller skating, but decides to try it out because one of their friends really likes it and invites them, they may find they enjoy it… or not, which in that case they won’t go again, which is fine. Alternatively, they find a new hobby they enjoy, and selfhosting could give skills that turn into a potential career, but that’s if they really enjoy it. I don’t think it’s uncommon for friend groups to have outsiders (me) and “force” them into trying new things, but maybe my comparison doesn’t hold up here as this is a bit less about socializing.