To Host Or Not To Host
This is a question I’ve asked myself for years, particularly with Ghost and Mastodon. I ultimately decided against self-hosting Ghost, because that’s a step above my comfort level, and I like having the direct support my subscription provides me. Among other things…
Plus, at the end of the day, I just want to blog without having to worry about maintenance. Leave that to the pros.
Mastodon has been more tempting to host, as I never feel truly satisfied with instances I’ve tried and am currently on. The lack of emotes on my main instance, along with the basic character limit, are two things I wish I could change for myself.
I actually had my own solo instance for a few months with the help of a managed host, but dropped it because of limitations. Limitations such as basic character limit…
i am glad I didn’t stick with it, as there are other Fediverse options that appeal to me, like Firefish (technically now defunct, or last I heard, anyway) or Iceshrimp. Firefish is definitely more my speed, but I’d be just as happy on Iceshrimp. I’m just tired of hopping server to server, and having to deal with potential misbehavior from admins.
That’s why I was so excited when Spacehost was announced! Spacehost has some affordable options for solo instances, which I would jump all over—if i had the funds, that is. So basically, the only thing holding me back right now is my financial situation. That’s not even counting domain names. I think I have one I could use, but I don’t know if i want to stick with it.
Decisions, decisions…
To complicate matters further, Ghost will be joining the Activity Pub soon. My blog could be a part of the Fediverse! I am super stoked!
I briefly considered focusing more on that aspect, but I can’t imagine it would be easy to sync my following/followers with my actual blog. And because I don’t want to deal with trolls, I have comments only enabled for members…I think I can switch that on and off for individual posts, but that’s one more thing to consider.
This is something I can’t decide overnight, which is really for the best. I’m going to wait and see if there are any upcoming deals on Spacehost before I commit to anything.
