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Comment by mdaEyebot | Hacker News Reader

Is it really too much to ask for people to host their own content on a cheap VPS?

Wouldn't that neatly solve the content moderation problem? You register your server on an index or two, and you choose what your server will publish and accept. Each user would be responsible for finding a hosting provider who doesn't have a problem with what you post, and problematic content reports would go right to the hosting providers. The indexers could basically be DNS for usernames.

The AWS free tier would cover 99% of people, and between VNC and web UIs, you wouldn't necessarily need them to ever touch a shell. Plus, requiring a reasonably consistent public IP address would help to cut down on bulk spam.

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For sure it's too much to ask.

Get started on Twitter: 1. go to twitter.com 2. enter your name and phone number

Get started on Pleroma: https://docs.pleroma.social/backend/installation/debian_base...

Get started on Mastodon: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/install/ [page 1 of 12]

For the full effect, do the install with an iPhone.

Does it sound elitist to say that maybe a small barrier to entry could make for better quality social networks? Especially if the tradeoff was giving users more creative control over their spaces?

I guess you wouldn't get billions in ad revenue that way, but your expenses could be miniscule, and isn't it possible that a rapacious profit motive is part of the core problem with Meta, Twitter, & co?

Or are there really too few people in the world who could figure out how to log into a <$5/mo cloud VM?

"Is it really too much to ask for people to host their own content on a cheap VPS"

That is the most out of touch question I have ever read on the internet. It is hilariously ridiculous :)

I'm a professional developer with active AWS and DigitalOcean accounts and there's no way in hell I would spend time setting up my own mastodon instance. Can you imagine my tech illiterate cousin who likes to tweet about celebrity gossip doing this?

People hosting their own social media servers is pure delusion.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/

Almost a third of American adults can't achieve computer tasks comparable in difficulty to "delete an email message." Only about a third can manage tasks comparable to: "You want to find a sustainability-related document that was sent to you by John Smith in October last year."

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