I self-hosted an instance a when I got here a few days ago. The server costs me the same whether I use it or not, so I’d like to let as many people sign up as I can. I had a few people sign up already before join-lemmy.org was changed to require 5 monthly active users, but now my instance isn’t shown there because it’s below the limit.
Any idea on how to attract a dozen or so users so that I can show up on the main join-lemmy page again?
Just guessing but… Ironically, post on /r/lemmymigration. Have clear rules and community expectations that tell people what your instance is about.
I’m self hosted too debating if I’m gonna open mine or keep it closed. I really did it as a learning experience, fun and curiosity. Hosting costs will barely be a Starbucks drink a month as is…
I’m also self hosted. I decided to self host because cost of running a server isn’t so bad, and I like having my own domain / address.
Mine is open, and I’ve had some random signups without promoting it anywhere.
What provider are you using to host? I’ve got a hostgator shared plan for a personal site but wasn’t sure if I’d specifically need a VPS to do it.
I’m using cloudzy VPS. It’s cheap but realized that smtp ports are blocked today… So gotta look into what to do about that if I want to use this instance beyond a private one. Email would be required for forgot passwords, registrations, etc…
You almost certainly want to outsource email to something like SendGrid anyway. Hosting your own email server is harder than it’s worth these days.
Yeah for sure. Would have to figure out how to integrate with lemmy since its an api.