• I’ve always felt that if you are soliciting recommendations for self hosting equipment, why not ask self hosters? I would say that 99% of all equipment threads that get posted here are directly related to beginners or even seasoned vets, asking 'what kind of equipment world I need to run ‘xxx stack’. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a thread where the OP was building his next gaming machine asking for recommends.

• The whole gatekeeping about the strict definition of ‘self hosting’. Self hosting is a huge conglomeration of different approaches. Sometimes, especially with beginners, outright buying a proper piece of equipment to use in your residence might be problematic, or cost prohibitive. However a small, $30 USD/year VPS might fit for getting your feet wet, or even on into the future. In past lives I have started, modded, forums. I used to be a mod at reddit for quite a while of a good handful of subs like De-Google/De-Amazon/ all the De-(corporate services). I seriously despise gatekeeping. I think we can all co-exist whether you have a full blown rack in your closet that dims the neighborhood lights when you power up, a small VPS, an RPi, or a repurposed disposable vape-server (which was pretty doggone impressive).

I honestly haven’t seen too many completely off topic threads started here. There are a few. There was the Anonymous recruiting thread, a lost Lemmy with children down on his luck, and a few others. However, for the most part, people who bypass reddit and navigate all the way to Lemmy c/selfhosting are pretty much within the realm of selfhosting.

I believe in being encouraging and positive, even if the topic of discussion is something I’m not really kosher with. We’re all, I’m assuming, fully autonomous adults capable of making our own decisions…and living with them.