SelfhostedResearch

@SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Totally understand your concern, and you’re right, the assumption of cloud as a default can be frustrating in many ways.

  That said, this framing partly reflects the state of the academic literature: in the past 10–15 years, cloud adoption (especially SaaS) has been extensively studied, to the point where it often feels “default” in research too. In contrast, self-hosting has been far less explored, which is exactly why we’re doing this study—to help fill that gap and highlight its relevance, especially in academic contexts.

  Thanks again for your thoughts and for the good wishes! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your comment. The use of similar statements is a common practice in survey research, as it helps to capture various dimensions of a construct more reliably and provides a clearer understanding of individual perspectives.

  Regarding your concern, the purpose of this study is not to ask anyone to justify or defend their choices, whether it’s about using third-party services or self-hosting. Instead, we aim to identify the factors that influence such decisions, from a scientific standpoint, to better understand the motivations behind them. The goal is not to judge whether one choice is better than another, but to gain insights into the different considerations that shape people’s decisions when it comes to managing their data and services. Thank you again for taking the time to complete the survey.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks, much appreciated!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your comment. The use of similar statements is a common practice in this type of research, as it helps to better capture different aspects of a construct and ensures reliability. I understand that privacy may not be your personal motivation for self-hosting, and that’s perfectly fine. The purpose of this survey is to explore a variety of factors that can influence why individuals choose to self-host, and to determine the relative importance of each. Even if certain factors don’t apply to you, your responses contribute to a broader understanding of the motivations behind self-hosting. Thank you again for taking the time to complete the survey.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you so much, really appreciate it!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you very much – I really appreciate your participation! Yes, the results will be published as part of my PhD dissertation, and also in one of the peer-reviewed journals in the field of Computer Science. Once everything is finalized and publicly available, I’ll definitely share a summary and a link to the publication here as well. Thanks again for your interest and support!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for completing the survey! Glad it helped you discover new self-hosted software to try! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks so much – really appreciate it! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your feedback and for completing the survey. The first part of the survey primarily focuses on Software as a Service (SaaS). We appreciate your input and will consider ways to clarify this in future surveys.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your honest feedback and for completing the survey. We understand that some questions may have felt redundant or repetitive, but this design is intended to ensure the reliability and accuracy of measuring the same concepts from different perspectives.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks a lot, really appreciate it!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your comment and for completing the survey. It is common practice in research to group together statements that measure the same construct. This arrangement makes it easier for respondents to follow and compare answers on related topics, which contributes to more reliable measurement by helping maintain focus on the subject matter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for completing the survey and for your thoughtful feedback. The similarity between some questions is intentional and follows common scientific practice when measuring complex or abstract concepts. Using multiple, slightly varied items that target the same construct increases the reliability and validity of the data by capturing subtle nuances and reducing the influence of random response variation. While your suggestion to show only a subset of such items through adaptive platforms is valid and worth exploring, fixed item sets are generally preferred in research settings to ensure consistent and robust measurement. We appreciate your input and will consider it in future survey design improvements.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for participating in the survey and for providing your feedback.

  We are aware that some of the statements may appear similar or closely related. This is an intentional aspect of the survey design, aimed at capturing different dimensions of the same underlying construct or thematic area. In scientific research, it is a well-established and widely used practice to include multiple, conceptually related items when measuring a specific concept.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks a lot, really appreciate it! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you so much, really appreciate it! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback!

  You’ve raised an important point: cloud service providers are not all the same, and their business models can significantly influence how much trust users place in them. We fully agree that there’s a big difference between providers like Backblaze, whose value proposition is built on privacy and reliability, and companies like Google, where monetization often relies on extensive data collection.

  The purpose of this section in the survey is to explore general perceptions and motivations behind, not to evaluate individual providers. However, we understand that this generalization can be limiting — especially for respondents who distinguish clearly between different types of services and trust models. Your situation, where you answered “Neither agree nor disagree” not out of indecision but due to the complexity of the issue, is very insightful.

  Thanks again for taking the time to share this, it’s greatly appreciated!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your feedback!

  We understand that the question about education levels may have been confusing, especially when trying to map the German school system to the categories provided.

  The answer options in our survey are based on ISCED 2011 – the International Standard Classification of Education, developed by UNESCO. This is a globally recognized framework used to ensure that education levels can be compared across countries, despite differences in national education systems.

  To help clarify, here is how the German terms you mentioned generally correspond to ISCED categories:

  • Grundschule → Primary Education
  • Hauptschule / Realschule → Lower Secondary Education
  • Gymnasium (until Abitur) → Upper Secondary Education
  • Studium (university studies) → depending on the degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent tertiary education level / Master’s degree or equivalent tertiary education level Doctoral degree or equivalent tertiary education level)
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks a lot for your input and kind wishes, really appreciate it!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks, much appreciated!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for your feedback! You’re right, self-employment could be listed more clearly, but choosing “Other” was absolutely fine and your response is fully valid. Thanks again!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, it surprised me too! If you want to read more about it, check out the paper titled “Towards Privacy and Security in Private Clouds: A Representative Survey on the Prevalence of Private Hosting and Administrator Characteristics” by Gröber et al. (2024).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for the comment: that’s a really good point to raise.

  Just to clarify: the statement “I use self-hosted services in the following categories as much as possible” is meant to reflect how fully you make use of self-hosted solutions in each area. A response like “Strongly agree” would indicate that you actively use and take full advantage of self-hosting in that category.

  If you don’t use solutions in a particular category at all — whether that’s because you don’t need them, aren’t interested, or use only external services — then it’s completely appropriate to select a disagreeing option (e.g. “Disagree” or “Strongly disagree”). In this context, lower agreement simply indicates low or no use, regardless of the reason.

  From a methodological standpoint, the data will be analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). This approach requires a complete set of responses across the measured constructs. If we included a “not applicable” option, it would create missing values in the dataset and potentially lead to excluding the entire response for that part of the analysis — which would significantly reduce the usable sample size.

  That said, I really appreciate your feedback! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks so much – really appreciate it! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you so much! I really appreciate the support! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s a very valid concern, and you’re absolutely right to bring it up.

  One existing study that surveyed the general population found that about 8.4% of respondents were self-hosting users, which means that in order to get enough self-hosters from the general population for meaningful analysis, we’d need a very large sample.

  Unfortunately, we don’t have the funding or resources to conduct such large-scale research through a representative panel or agency. That’s why this study is focusing on communities where self-hosting is already discussed, like this one.

  That said, we’re definitely aware of this limitation, and we’re also sharing the survey in broader, more general-interest online communities where we expect non-self-hosters (or people unfamiliar with the concept) to be more present. This will allow us to include comparisons between the two groups in the analysis.

  Really appreciate your thoughtful comment — thanks!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re absolutely right, rephrasing similar questions is a common technique in survey design to reduce bias and improve reliability.

  Some questions may feel a bit redundant or oddly phrased because we based the survey on validated constructs from prior academic research, especially well-established models like the Technology Acceptance Model. Using these standardized scales helps ensure the results are scientifically sound and comparable with previous studies - though I totally get that it can feel repetitive from a participant’s point of view.

  That said, I really appreciate the feedback from both of you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for the comment — that’s a valid observation, and I understand how the wording might feel a bit awkward.

  Just to clarify: the statement comes from a standardized construct called Subjective Norms, and follows the phrasing from the paper “A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model” by Venkatesh & Davis (2000).

  For all independent variables in the survey, we relied on validated scales and established practices from prior scientific research, to ensure consistency and reliability. That said, I really appreciate your feedback. :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely, that’s our intention as well! Our university actively encourages publishing in open-access journals whenever possible, and I fully support that approach. So yes, if all goes well, the results will definitely be published open access. Thanks for the encouragement! :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s true! :) Starting with TLD: si - Slovenia; um - University of Maribor; feri - Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; lpt - Laboratory for Data technologies; and survey for LimeSurvey.