related to the author's quest for ownership, i would say "self-host" means that the "self" involved here owns the "host". so e.g. hosting on a PC you own is "se

related to the author's quest for ownership, i would say "self-host" means that the "self" involved here owns the "host". so e.g. hosting on a PC you own is "self-hosting". ownership is thorny (as the author is discovering). how does this change if you co-locate your box on the property of an internet exchange not owned by you? how does it change if you maintain physical possession of the host but there's some lien on it (i've never heard of somebody mortgaging a server, but there's no reason you couldn't)? i'm not sure. i think the concepts which "self-host" acts to label necessarily lie on a scale. if i were to attempt a strict boundary to which everything on one side is "self-hosting" and the other is not, there'd sure to be some contradictions. but i think at least notional ownership of the host is necessary for self-hosting and no VPS claims that.