[apitman]

What would you call it if it's hosted on someone else's server, but using open source software under your domain, and you have a complete backup of all the data so you could move it home or to another provider whenever you want?

[transpute]

For the last 30 years, that's been called "web hosting" [1]:

  Shared custody
  No confidentiality
  Portable domain identity

[1] https://www.webhostingtalk.com

[apitman]

If someone thinks to themselves: "I really don't like the ways twitter is changing. I'm leaving, but is there anything I can do to avoid the same thing happening with some other app/company?"

If they search around for an answer to that question, pretty soon someone is going to tell them to "self-host a Mastodon instance" or in the near future "self-host an ATProto instance".

My point is that the term "self-hosting" is unlikely to get them what they want, unless they happen to be interested in learning about DNS, IP addresses, ports, port forwarding, routers, firewalls, NAT, CGNAT, TLS, TCP, HTTP, web servers, Linux, updates, backups, etc, etc.

I don't think "web hosting" is going to help them much either.

What most people want is something like a Mastodon instance from masto.host[0] that integrates with a service like TakingNames[1] (which I own) to delegate DNS with OAuth2. I think we need a new term for this sort of setup. I think the term should also include self-hosting solutions, as long as those solutions focus on the outcomes (having a car to drive), not the implementation (building a kit car).

[0]: https://masto.host/

[1]: https://takingnames.io/blog/introducing-takingnames-io

[johnklos]

I see both sides. While "self hosting" has always meant hosting yourself, and hosting on other people's systems isn't hosting something yourself, I can see how people can get confused and can call running their self-configured software on a rented VM "self hosting".

It's not as unambiguously incorrect as other silly things people say and do that are technically incorrect, but it is annoying when people don't provide enough context where it matters.

Honestly, the distinction only really matters when discussing privacy. Hosting your own stuff in a rented VM is still self hosting, but if you're talking about how you self host because you care about the security of your data, you're now definitely not talking about rented VMs.

Generally, I think we need to get used to the idea that "self hosting" now also refers to hosting software you configure on rented systems / VMs.

[transpute]

> don't like the ways twitter is changing. I'm leaving

Has there been work to quantify relative network effects in Twitter vs Mastodon, either generally or in specific communities? e.g. if person A was following N people on Twitter (e.g. in a list), what subset or superset of N could be followed on Mastdon?

If a user requested all their data from Twitter, including people being followed, is there tooling to map user identity/handles from Twitter to member names on decentralized alternatives?

> someone is going to tell them to "self-host a Mastodon instance.. from masto.host

Wouldn't that be masto-hosted rather than self-hosted?

In that scenario, Masto.host would be a trusted custodian of a social media identity, somewhat like a bank.