Mentally tired after the week I've had.

[elena@aseachange.com]

Mentally tired after the week I've had.

I must have installed/uninstalled #Sharkey at least 9 times... and even when I got it to work it proved to be a total lemon.

Ditto for #Wallabag (paid plan on their server) and my self-hosted #Linkwarden.

🦇​ This is my self-hosting cursed week 👻​

I finally got Sharkey to work because I switched to a managed instance (https://calckey.world). And then I got my collection of links to work on #Linkwarden when I switched to their managed instance (there's a clear pattern here, LOL).

Then yesterday I tried CasaOS. A little too simple for my taste and with NO security in place / no instruction to add Let's Encrypt certs (as far as I could tell). When I read it's a Chinese project I kind of bolted (no offense to them, but I like to keep my stuff in Europe).

Then today I tried Cloudron and could not set it up.

Then I spun up another Ubuntu server to manually install Ghost v6 and couldn't figure out how to configure the caddy file.

Since Wednesday I must have started and stopped at least 7 servers on #Hetzner. My usage is still ridiculously low (1.19 Euros for the past 30 days) but I'm afraid I'll get flagged for suspicious behavior, LOL. I promise I'm not shady, I'm just an awkward newbie.

In all this, I am now EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for how easy and clear it is to set up a #YunoHost system.

The security they offer right off the bat is awesome... as well as the clear instructions about how to edit DNS records, install Let's Encrypt certificates and the whole nine yards.

YUNOHOST has no equivalent when it comes to empowering newbies and I'm just so so grateful to them... and I look forward to writing a step-by-step installation guide for newbies.

Apologies to sysadmins if this post had triggered you. I completely understand its chaotic energy... to be fair it's the first time in 10 months that I attempt to do so many things.

Anyway, off to get dressed for Halloween now.

Wishing you all a lovely evening and weekend 🎃​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@elena No worries, we all have long lists of stuff we tried and couldn't finish for one or the other weird reason that demands more research. Research that sometimes costs more time and effort than the thing we try to get up and running. It's how we learn. Learn about what's possible, what is achievable but also where our limits are. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that :) Welcome to the club!

[elena@aseachange.com]

@jwildeboer thanks Jan! I'm not yet worthy of belonging to your club, but I'm admiring what you amazing techies do from the sidelines

[regendans@todon.eu]

@jwildeboer @elena Self-hosting is addictive, isn't it ? 😄

[mosu@hachyderm.io]

@elena I've been self-hosting & sysadmin-ning for… I don't know… more than 30 years now. Both for fun & as for my day job. Please believe me that running head-first into such walls happens to us veterans, too, including days in which I don't seem to be able to make any progress whatsoever.
Frustrating as heck when it happens. I get it. On the other hand, when you do figure these things out, sometimes a day later, sometimes half a year later, it can be so rewarding and incredibly fun. And best of all: you learn a lot, even (especially?) in failing! 'cause you still look up a lot of documentation, get to know logs, inner workings of programs/OS/protocols/APIs, or just by researching alternatives.
Keep working on it! This is a fantastic journey, with a lot of fun to be had.

[elena@aseachange.com]

@regendans @jwildeboer OMG tell me about it. Hetzner makes it so easy (and cheap) to try new things. Too easy! 😅​

[elena@aseachange.com]

@mosu Thank you! And indeed, all the lessons I'm learning when something fails are incredibly valuable. I'm learning so much from configuration problems and my mistakes :)

[prinlu@0x.trans.fail]

@elena @mosu if you spun up yunohost 7 times this week you're not a newbie sysadmin. congrats on getting all this amazing experience!

also, after a while you notice your own creativity: all the fun ways in which you can throw various things at a stuborn software that doesn't want to do what you want.

you are amazing how you share this with the world so that they have more courage to use software where you can pop the hood and learn the internals of modern tech (floss). you must give yourself credit for this!

[elena@aseachange.com]

@prinlu @mosu aw thank you! 🥹

Honestly this week was super hard (the toughest) morale-wise, but I learned more in these past few days than in the whole 10+ months I’ve been self-hosting.

I really appreciate the encouragement ❤️