The Smol Web

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Community for the appreciation and sharing of links, resources, and culture of: the smol web / small web / ~(w)~ / the indie web / or even the non-www internet (gemini, gopher, etc).

Back of a napkin definition, subject to change: if it's internet accessible and is maintained by a person, especially for non-commercial aims, then I would consider it smol. There are, however, much stricter definitions.

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grrgyle@slrpnk.net

Where should I be starting instead of here (Prosody)? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 2 months ago by foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net to c/smolweb@slrpnk.net

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Hi friends, I'm continuing to dive into the world of the Small Web and alternatives to big tech. I've slowly come up with a goal, or at least intention, of setting up an XMPP server for my neighborhood friends to use as an alternative to Discord. After chasing a few rabbit holes, I've found myself here: https://apps.yunohost.org/app/prosody

I like the words "easy to set up" but frankly I'm baffled from there. I assume I need some kind of dedicated PC for this? And phrases like "BOSH" "LDAP" and "coturn" are all (so far) meaningless to me. (Don't worry, I'm googling like crazy.)

So my question is, do I need to go to college for developers to be able to understand all this, or is there somewhere else I can start? 'Cause I'm pretty sure this isn't the beginner level XD Should I just focus on setting up my own personal website before I start thinking about a big project like this one, or is this not as complex as it looks, or like I said, do I need specialized training?

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[–] cosmicrose@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I went to college for computer engineering, and what I learned in college has been pretty much entirely irrelevant to my self-hosting hobby. That said, there’s a ton to learn. The good news is that all the information on this stuff is available online for free, you’ve just got to have a good search engine that doesn’t give you slop and you should spend a lot of time reading. That’s how I got into it.

Services like Yunohost are a great place to start, but setting them up will still take some searching if you’re a beginner. Generally you can find services anywhere on the spectrum between “one-click setup” and “bare metal machine you can customize to your heart’s content” so you can navigate that spectrum as you learn more. Just try to always be security-conscious, research the security ramifications of whatever you’re doing.

[–] foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 months ago

A friend of mine is a cybersecurity teacher... maybe I should reach out to him. I've just switched from Ecosia to Brave for my search engine and it seems to be returning helpful options thus far. Is there anything smaller than setting up my own XMPP server that you'd suggest as a beginner option, or is it better to just dive into the deep end and read like crazy?