Hi all, I’ve been noticing a pattern in self-hosting communities, and I’m curious if others see it too.

Whenever someone asks for a more beginner-friendly solution, something with a UI, automated setup, or fewer manual configs, there’s often a response like:

“If you can’t configure Docker, reverse proxies, and Yaml files, you shouldn’t be self-hosting.”

Sometimes it feels like a portion of the community views complexity as a badge of honour. Don’t get me wrong, I love the technical side of self-hosting. I enjoy tinkering, breaking things, fixing them, learning along the way. That’s how most of us got into it.

But here’s the question: Is gatekeeping slowing down the adoption of self-hosting?

If we want more people to own their data, escape Big Tech, and embrace open-source alternatives, shouldn’t we welcome solutions that lower the entry barrier?

There’s room for everyone:

  • people who want full control and custom setups,

  • people who want semi-manual but guided,

  • and people who want it to work with minimal friction.

Just like not every Linux user compiles from source, but they’re still Linux users.

Where do you stand? Should self-hosting stay DIY-only or is there value in easier, more accessible ways to self-host?

My project focuses on building a tool that makes self-hosting more accessible without sacrificing data ownership, so I genuinely want your honest take before releasing it more widely.

  • otacon239@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    8 hours ago

    You made pretty much every point exactly how I was going to make it.

    I will mention that even as a pretty experienced sysadmin, learning Docker, reverse proxies, and relevant config files took ages because there are treated as assumed knowledge.

    Every YouTube video on Docker is 30 minutes shorter than they should be, and terminology for reverse proxies is really confusing if you’re not already familiar.

    It’s great to say you shouldn’t use these if you’re not familiar, but these are also probably the most poorly taught subjects in computing right now from my experience.