Re: Self-hosting versus lots of small indieweb providers
2 min read
I see a discussion about the IndieWeb happening and I had a few thoughts.
It’s better by far to focus on other aspects of the independent and open web: a diffusion of many smaller service providers; easily having and keeping your own domain; and true data portability.
I agree with this thought. The most important piece is portability and identity ownership. Then I get to move my identity wherever I want. I can take it to a big tech provider, a small IndieWeb provider, a VPS I rent, or my own computer in the tech cave.
I think email is the gold standard. I can own my identity, myemail@mydomain.com, and I can use Apple, Google, Fastmail, or my own email server. If Apple and Google piss me off, I can move to Fastmail. If Fastmail is too expensive, I can torture myself by trying to run my own email server.
This is probably my biggest complaint with Mastodon in its current implementation. I can't pay a provider to only host my account. To use my own domain, I must spin up a single-user instance, which is more management than I want.
But on the topic of self-hosting versus lots of small IndieWeb providers, the answer is obviously both! The nerds get to nerd, and normies who just care about having their own identity but don't have the technical chops can still do it by using a small IndieWeb provider.
