Disclaimer: I’m no expert on this.

I realized recently there are two common types of Self Hosters here.

  1. I work in IT and host some services for my employer so we don’t have to rely on the big tech companies, for economic or other reasons.

  2. I self host some services at home or on a VPS, as a hobby or for other reasons, but nobody pays me to do that.

The answers people provide seem to vary greatly based on whether the commenter is in the #1 or #2 camp. I myself have gotten answers along the lines of, “why aren’t you acting more like a paid IT person?” and it’s a little off-putting.

How to resolve this? Could we refer to one group or the other differently?

Maybe I’m making a bigger deal out of this than is warranted and I’m the only one confused?

If nothing else, I will call out my hobby status from now on when posting/commenting here.

Edited to add: TIL. I’ll use these terms carefully in the future. Thanks!

  • @[email protected]English
    8•6 months ago

    I myself have gotten answers along the lines of, “why aren’t you acting more like a paid IT person?” and it’s a little off-putting.

    We’re all hobbyists (though some of us do it profesionally too). Wanting your service to be reliable is a fair assumption. If you don’t care if Jellyfin goes down while your girlfriend is trying to watch The Bachelor, or if you accidentally delete all your photos with no backups, then just say you accept that risk and nobody should give you a hard time.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      1•6 months ago

      … or if you accidentally delete all your photos with no backups

      Ouch. (Yes, that was me)