twovests

twovests wrote

Learning enough self-hosting to set up Postmill is difficult, but doable! Having some Linux experience is a pretty good start.

I don't know your exact skill level, but I figure you're at least familiar with using the Linux command line and with using Google/StackOverflow/etc.

I'd recommend doing all your learning on a Raspberry Pi (or other spare computer to install Linux on), if you have one, so you aren't paying ~$10/month to a VPS provider.

What is your main OS? (Windows? MacOS? Linux?) This matters a bit for what tools you'd use to manage your server.

If I were to recommend some "milestones" along the way to hosting Postmill, I would break down the goals like this. Except for the Postmill specific steps, you can find good guides for any of these all over the internet:

  1. Learning:
    1. Set up Linux on a Raspberry Pi (or spare computer).
      • You can go straight to the VPS if you want.
    2. Set up SSH (using key auth only) to that Linux machine, and only use SSH to manage it. (No desktop GUI!)
    3. Set up a Caddy server on that Linux machine and set up a 'hello world' page.
      • I very highly recommend Caddy because it's very "production ready" by default, easy to install (because Go compiles to static binaries) and easy to use.
    4. Set up a Postmill instance on your Linux machine using Docker and Docker Compose.
  2. Doing:
    • You'll repeat a lot of the work you did above, but it should go a lot faster once you've done all the trial-and-error. Plus, you'll have your history from the above to refer to.
    1. Set Linux on a VPS with a provider like DigitalOcean.
    2. Buy a domain from a registrar like IWantMyName, and set up the A and AAAA records to point to your VPS.
    3. Set up SSH (using key auth only -- extra important this time!) to the server, if you didn't in part 1.
    4. Set up a Caddy server and set up a hello world to your domain.
    5. Install Postmill on your VPS using Docker and Docker Compose

I luv to talk about this stuff so pls ask any questions you have :3

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twovests OP wrote

I really appreciate this c:

I feel some kind of... Internal friction? About going on a trans forum and saying "Hey all, I'm not taking HRT <3". But I do very much appreciate people being okay with that.

I love the "queering the cis-trans binary" thing. I never felt very correct about IDing as trans, but between the two boxes, it's T 100%.

I keep wavering between "tapering off HRT" and "Oh, I can have another E as a treat" to the point where even this post is out of date lol.

(also, thank u for commenting on the terf criticism and saying it was funny. i worry that my posts about terfs and transphobes might be too esoteric or hurtful to consider)

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twovests wrote (edited )

Hi! I'm the current sysadmin of jstpst and I recently figured out (with lotsa help from emma) how to host it!

Right now we're hosting Jstpst on a DigitalOcean VPS using Docker.

Are you already familiar with selfhosting on Linux? The whole "Rent a VPS or something, set up a domain, host a service, put it behind Nginx or whatever" and all the "sudo nano /etc/blahblahblah"?

If so, you have the prerequisite skills :D I'm using Docker to host Postmill because I've had so many pains with dependency conflicts and upgrades before. Docker's promise that I would never have to worry about that again has held true.

The repo with Dockerfiles is here: https://codeberg.org/Postmill/Postmill

The docker instructions are here: https://codeberg.org/Postmill/Postmill/wiki/Serving-Postmill-using-Docker-and-Caddy

The Docker Compose (which sets up and links the multiple Docker images which a Postmill install uses) is here: https://codeberg.org/Postmill/postmill-docker-example


For directed guidance, are you familiar with using Linux and hosting web services / sites on Linux? (I think you can do this on other OSes too, but I can't speak to BSD or Windows or whatnot)

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twovests OP wrote

(Different cheeses are just different molds, i.e. foodstuffs which get their distinctive flavors from being highly complex lifeforms. To me, a cheese is a civilization. And our civilization is like a cheese.)

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