but can I use a random old computer I have in my house to run an instance as long as there are a managable number of users? renting a server isnt self hosting. making one yourself is self hosting.
You can easily run a PDS, that’s the main public-facing part, you’d need port forwarding and a domain name for this.
Appviews are easier to host imo, https://github.com/alnkesq/AppViewLite is what I use. You can run this on a PC right now, and log in with your bluesky account.
thats not a whole instance though. thats just a place for an account to be. on activity pub platforms anyone can just make an entire indepent and independently functional instance of the platform.
The storage requirements aren’t an issue anymore.
You can self host everything for around ~$34 a month.
@gabboman@app.wafrn.net runs an alternate bluesky instance (kinda) and he’s not bankrupt yet. Hell, it was on a free oracle server for a while.
but can I use a random old computer I have in my house to run an instance as long as there are a managable number of users? renting a server isnt self hosting. making one yourself is self hosting.
No, you can’t. You can have a custom domain (“PDS” is the term they invented for this) but it still relies on bluesky’s servers.
Yes, you can.
You can easily run a PDS, that’s the main public-facing part, you’d need port forwarding and a domain name for this.
Appviews are easier to host imo, https://github.com/alnkesq/AppViewLite is what I use. You can run this on a PC right now, and log in with your bluesky account.
thats not a whole instance though. thats just a place for an account to be. on activity pub platforms anyone can just make an entire indepent and independently functional instance of the platform.
???
The PDS and the Appview combined are equivalent to an instance. Both run on shitware.