📣​ New post 📝​

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting: GoToSocial part 1 (installation and set-up)"

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-gotosocial-part-1-installation-and-set-up/

Basically a visual guide showing how to install #GoToSocial via #YunoHost and set it up with some basic security.

⏱️​ From start to finish, it should take about 25-30 minutes.

It's my act of resistance against tech bros... I love the idea of teaching people how to self-host their own social media instance, connected to the fediverse ✌️​❤️​ ​

Thank you @yunohost  and @gotosocial for empowering us all!

#SelfHosting #Fediverse #newbie #MySoCalledSudoLife #blog #resist

Working on a brand new post for my series "a newbie's guide to self-hosting with #YunoHost" - showing people how to set up their own #GoToSocial microblogging instance.

Sorry it's been taking a while: I started over when I realized most people use subdomains... and I'm doing a thorough step-by-step explainer that any newbie could follow - I hope 😅

The whole series is available here:

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost/

#SelfHosting #MySoCalledSudoLife #blog

Alt...

a screenshot of GoToSocial's installation page on YunoHost that reads: "GoToSocial Current version: 0.22.0~ynh1 Potential alternative to: Akkoma, Bluesky, Calckey, Mastodon, Misskey, Pleroma, Threads, X GoToSocial is a fast ActivityPub social network server, written in Golang. With GoToSocial, you can keep in touch with your friends, post, read, and share images and articles. All without being tracked or advertised to! The official documentation is at docs.gotosocial.org. Admins are strongly encouraged to read the documentation of this package after installing it. It is available in the webadmin under Applications > gotosocial (at the bottom) or here on the package's repository! Please note that this package uses the "i'm so tired" software license 1.0, please read it and accept it before proceeding with installation."

Karrot is a free open source self-hostable platform for organising grassroots community activism. You can find out more at:

🌱 https://codeberg.org/karrot

You can follow the project at:

🌱 @karrot

If you don't want to self-host, there's a public server at:

🌱 https://karrot.world

#SelfHosting #Activism #Grassroots #CommunityHosting #FOSS

The amazing folks at @yunohost are running a fundraising campaign to cover their operating costs for 2026.

I personally make a monthly recurring donation to them but wish I could give more 🥲

If you use their services and you can afford it, please consider donating to their project. Every Euro / Dollar / Yen counts:

🔗 : https://yunohost.org/donate.en.html

#NotAllHeroesWearCapes #SelfHosting #empowerment #resist #YunoHost

New post: I look at the most ideologically "pure" or least problematic general tech choices---stuff that isn't owned by bigots, not openly bootlicking for Trump, DRM- and AI-free, based on open standards, and isn't cartoonishly greedy.

https://www.diversetechgeek.com/least-problematic-tech-options/

#tech #opensource #Linux #CreativeCommons #DRM #selfhosting

Good morning Fedi friends!

On the agenda today: writing a first draft explaining to newbies how to self-host #GoToSocial with the help of #YunoHost.

Now, to do a step-by-step installation guide I need to create a brand new account, so I can document everything.

I'm a little stressed out thinking of which domain name to use and the fact it would be something like my 20th - yes TWENTIETH - ActivityPub account!!! 🫠

The things you do for the love of the fediverse 😅​

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

European institutions seem to be all in when it comes to introducing age verification mandates for citizens in member states: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-sets-out-common-approach-eu-wide-age-verification-technologies

I now have daily anxiety thinking about the future of the fediverse.

So how do I channel this fear and turn it into something constructive? I'm going back to writing #selfhosting guides for newbies.

It's a great distraction, which gives me a bit of hope. Especially the next guide, which will cover my favorite fediverse software - #GoToSocial (which is powering this instance) - and how to install and configure it. Your own little home on the fediverse! Lightweight and features-packed.

Surely something like this would fall outside the scope of regulation. Right? Right?

#MySoCalledSudoLife #YunoHost #VPS #AgeVerification #privacy #EUBigTech

What many people misunderstand about hosting your own content (like this social media instance) is thinking we somehow NEED a big audience or Big Tech involvement.

I'm perfectly fine if the world faded away and it was just the thousand of us here. It's like the early days of the web when we had small forums, nobody missed Reddit back then. Federation is a big plus, not a requirement.

It's the same with websites or IRC for me. I know people use Discord, but I still stick to IRC even if there are only about a hundred of us left. I know people use AI now and website visitors are dropping, but who cares? I still keep doing it for those who like to read.

I don't need the whole world involved for this to feel worthwhile. It's mine, I own it, and I host it for as long as I breathe. After that, it won't matter to me anymore, but I hope other admins keep things running the way I did.

#SelfHosted #SelfHosting #OpenSource #Fediverse #Mastodon #OpenWeb #SocialWeb

Hackaday: Smart Bulb WiFi Server Hosts “Banned” Literature. “Let’s stop for a moment and pause to consider the smart bulb. Imagine going back 20 years and telling yourself that people will be putting computers capable of acting as web servers into light bulbs just so they can control them from their telephone instead of hitting the switch. The whole thing seems crazy — but its great, […]

I think #SelfHosting is an important skill to learn, for anyone with the aptitude for it. I think the internet can't really be made a better place, until people learn to use those same skills to "staple the internet to real life". Like start from a place in one's real-world existence and look around. There are real-world organizations, and various community groups.

These groups should ideally roll their own self-hosted services: forums, group chats, file-sharing, etc. That's what I mean by "stapling": real world regional orgs aligning to the services they self-host. It's the opposite of using Big Tech forums: the Facebooks, Instagrams, etc of the world, where the platforms can't be trusted, and are totally certain to enshittify. In this way, #DataSovereignty is gained.

Yes, people will need a password manager to manage all those passwords. Or perhaps regional SSO servers - run by a city or province/state - can unify these accounts somewhat. Password management and backing up the password database (eg. .kdbx file) should be taught in school.

People actually visiting over coffee/tea (or meals), are the right time to help someone less technically inclined (in person) to install a new #OpenSource friendly app, like Signal or #DeltaChat

Yes, it won't be easy, *but I don't see an alternative*. There's pretty much no escape from the Tech Bro billionaires otherwise.

If you want to set up several different online services but can't afford different domain names for them all, you can just use subdomains of one domain instead. They are limitless and cost nothing extra.

e.g. You could have a Mastodon server at social.example.com, a PeerTube server at video.example.com, a Nextcloud server at cloud.example.com etc.

Each subdomain can use totally different software and be on totally different hosting providers.

#SelfHosting

@sundogplanets

If you talk about your #DIY #moss or #mushroom powered #ebike that you ride to the #train when headed out to for #photography involving #birds #Cats #flowers or #insects on you way to battle #AISlop via your #Selfhosting #linux server while listening to #vinyl with your #auDHD #trans friends who run a #mutualAid website...you could be in the sweet spot.

#SelfHosting

I've been using #Nextcloud as a Dropbox replacement for a while. Recently I set up #Joplin as an EverNote replacement (I wasn't actually using evernote any more, but I needed to stop using Sticky Notes and the like, like an animal). And then Web Clipper on all my devices for... clipping from the web to Joplin.

@alfiekohn

It would not surprise me if one day soon #selfhosting is targeted.

I can see trying to buy a handful of 20TB drives and having to answer questions like I'm trying to buy two bottles of NyQuil.

Just showing some love for the Feishin music player in Linux. I'm using it for my Jellyfin library, and it's so much better than the previous player I was using, Finamp.

Very nice looking, intuitive, and even has a built in web radio player. Ooh la la!

https://github.com/jeffvli/feishin

#SelfHosted #SelfHosting #Linux

A cellular travel router is a wonderful thing.

#Tailscale and all the other bells and whistles.

On vacation, at home, and at work.

#HomeLab #SelfHosted #SelfHosting

Good morning Fedi friends!

Monday morning ritual: doing maintenance on my #YunoHost systems (I have two separate installations).

I prefer to do things directly in terminal now... and I forgot how to run updates in tmux, so what to do? Oh I can simply refer to MY OWN blog post about this, LOL:

https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-5-upgrades-maintenance/

Yes, I published a #selfhosting guide for newbies... but also as a reminder to myself 😅​

Wishing you all a great day / week. I'll be in Amsterdam later this week for #PubConf2026 - looking forward to it!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

A friend asked me about costs etc. in running my own Mastodon (glitch-soc) instance.

My reply might be useful more broadly:

Costs: I run mine on an Intel NUC, for which I paid about ~£200. But I ran for years on a Raspberry Pi, which was fine until my account got a bit big. It consumes some electricity, and I already have an Internet connection with IPv6 and a spare IPv4. So, incrementally, beyond the cost of the hardware, very little.

Time to set up: it took me about 30 minutes *but* I am already familiar with hardening a Linux server, and I build the basic infrastructure automatically. Honestly, this is the bit that would concern me the most, for someone planning on putting a box on the Internet. But it could also be a fun learning exercise.

Time to maintain: a few minutes a month. Upgrades are easy enough. Backups are automatic (because I have automated them).

#fedimeta #mastodon #linux #selfhosting

👩🏻‍💻 my so-called sudo life - day 489: new experiments edition 🧪

A blog post that chronicles what I have been up to since December... namely: advocating for the Fediverse, creating #selfhosting guides for newbies and experimenting with e-reader jailbreaks and off-grid mesh radio communications

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/my-so-called-sudo-life/my-so-called-sudo-life-day-489-new-experiments-edition/

#MySoCalledSudoLife #KindleJailbreak #KOreader #SimpleUI #meshtastic #blog #tech #resistance