this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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Selfhosted

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Hi everyone,

I’m a PhD student in Computer Science researching why people choose to self-host software—what motivates you, what concerns you, and what factors affect your decision-making.

To better understand this, I’ve prepared a short anonymous survey (~10 minutes). Your insights as part of the self-hosting community would be incredibly valuable for this research.

🔗 Survey link: https://survey.lpt.feri.um.si/376953?newtest=Y&lang=en&s=ls

This study is part of my doctoral research at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, conducted under the supervision of Assist. Prof. Lili Nemec Zlatolas, PhD. All responses are anonymous and used strictly for academic purposes.

If you’ve ever self-hosted anything—or even just considered it—I’d really appreciate your input.

Thanks a lot for your time, and feel free to ask me anything about the project (luka.hrgarek@um.si)!

Cheers!

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[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago
  • It's educational for those who have a lust for learning.
  • It's fun.
  • It's far more private than using commercial cloud services.
[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Page 2 seems to have a lot of redundant question.

I intend to continue using self-hosting services in the future if possible.
I will use self-hosting services regularly in the future if possible.
I will frequently use self-hosting services in the future if possible

[–] Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

They are different enough in intention though.

I intend - I plan to try, but I might not.

I will - I am definitely going to, but maybe not very often or for limited uses

I will frequently - I am definitely going to, and it will be a common/important part of my work/life-flow

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I was kind of surprised by my answers when I stopped to reflect. I realized I:

  • don't really like self-hosting
  • know a lot about new tech, but am not very excited about it
  • don't use a lot of the popular services

Anyway, I hope the results are useful! I don't know if you've done it already, but it would be interesting to compare results from different sources, like Lemmy vs Reddit or wherever you posted it.

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That domain is probably a whole story in another language lol

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[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Done! I've been selfhosting for over 20 years now.

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This survey doesn't distinguish between levels of cloud service provider, so I was a little confused.

Virtual private servers, cloud virtual servers (like AWS), cloud-based software where you provide code or a program and the cloud system runs it on a server of its choosing, and cloud-based systems where someone else provides the software (like Google Docs).

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[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Done.

I feel that it may be helpful to try to capture the motivation for each type of service.

For example. The reasons I host a media server are different than the reasons I host a photo backup solution.

Thank you for doing this research. I dream of the day that self hosting becomes as easy as spinning up a consumer router.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The thing I don't get about these self-host apps is why so many of them exist when the thing they do would be better to implement as a run of the mill offline program.

I just want to auto-import recipes from websites into a cookbook app without any fuss. We do not need to bring a server into this equation!

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[–] truxnell@aussie.zone 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] danieldekay@masto.ai 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

@SelfhostedResearch Done. But I found the survey design redundant and repetitive. Could demotivate people to complete ;(

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[–] JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Done, and link forwarded to my non Lemmy using selfhosting mentor. Maybe can get at least one more respondant. Maybe more. Good luck!

Many of my self hosted solutions are just DIY cludges. I was talking to a friend of a friend on Saturday about media streaming and he told me all about his Jellyfin setup and then asked about mine and I was just like "I just store MP4s on an SSHFS drive and play them in VLC on my TV (which runs Linux Mint)." When the survey asked about the various types of software I was like "No... I don't use anything like that... wait... yes I do! I just don't use a prebuilt solution!"

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Shouldn't the control questions / variations of the same be a bit scattered? For me they were all packed together.

Thank you for your comment and for completing the survey. It is common practice in research to group together statements that measure the same construct. This arrangement makes it easier for respondents to follow and compare answers on related topics, which contributes to more reliable measurement by helping maintain focus on the subject matter.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Done. Many questions which are the same or almost similar.

[–] SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you for participating in the survey and for providing your feedback.

We are aware that some of the statements may appear similar or closely related. This is an intentional aspect of the survey design, aimed at capturing different dimensions of the same underlying construct or thematic area. In scientific research, it is a well-established and widely used practice to include multiple, conceptually related items when measuring a specific concept.

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[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hope it helps. There are whole categories of self hosted software I hadn't thought of before. Maybe I should try some of them! 😁

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[–] Sunlightl@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] raldone01@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Done but I felt lots of questions to be very similar. Maybe there is a form platform that can show only a subset of control questions for every survey.

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[–] vfscanf@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just submitted, I hope my answers are useful for your research

Thank you very much – I really appreciate your time! And yes, absolutely – every response adds valuable insight to the research. :)

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