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I feel like making it easy to how your own website is something that can be solved with an ingress service (Tailscale funnel?) + DNS management and a small box

I feel like making it easy to how your own website is something that can be solved with an ingress service (Tailscale funnel?) + DNS management and a small box that someone buys and leaves in their living room. It doesn't have to require any technical expertise, you just need to build a lot of things to make it that way.

idontwantthis 2y ago
I’ve thought about making my own homepage to replace my instagram/fb and share my life with my friends, but how would anyone find it? I guess I could email everyone and tell them. I’ve wondered if there is a way I could easily get that to the top of Google for my name, but there are a few famous people with my name.
- packetlost 2y ago
  I feel like Fediverse/Mastodon and/or Bluesky sort of solve this problem though. Fediverse in particular has a pretty rich ecosystem with niches for Twitter-like, Instagram-like, Reddit-like, and (I think) even Facebook-like. There's also RSS feeds
  - TylerE 2y ago
    I look at those Fediverse things and they just feel like toys. Horrible, confusing UX. Very limited feature sets. Mediocre performance, at best. if that's supposed to be the future, call me a luddite I guess.
- nytesky 2y ago
  You could get the URL out. I would like to have it require some authentication, and I don’t see too many easy ways to add authentication. I use Google Workspace for hosting and I guess it would default to Google IDs? Does SquareSpace provide access control for low cost accounts?
- volkk 2y ago
  does it make sense to have a "social" network that in essence is _only_ a directory? looking up someone works well, and links to some external site. full stop
  - idontwantthis 2y ago
    I’d love something like that. Ultra low cost and simple. But I don’t know if it really has a purpose.
  - 1659447091 2y ago
    This reminds me of Hotline[0]. Chat, message board, file sharing. Late 90's, early 2000's, but apparently there is still a small community around it going. Super easy to run your own server to host content from a desk/laptop and super easy to use a client to visit other servers. You could find servers using trackers (name severs that kept track of hotline servers) or keep the server private and only give out the server info to people you want. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications
- Larrikin 2y ago
  If you're sharing it with your friends and family, why does it matter if Google can find it? And if they are your friends why wouldn't you share it with them directly? The Internet felt a lot better when people were making the content for themselves and a community that they were part of.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    >and a community that they were part of. well that's the issue. There is no "small community" these days like there would be in the Usenet days. At least not a genreal purpose one for blogging whatever is on your mind. My parents wouldn't really care much about the content so much as supporting me. My friends don't necessarily share all the same interests as me. So you want to seek out like strangers on the internet to bond with. That's part of why we transitioned to early web 2.0 of utilizing a middleman to host content, and use that to attract a community. The internet grew and people could focus exclusively on what they were genuinely interested in, as opposed to subscribing to users directly.
- mtnGoat 2y ago
  I made placeholder accounts on meta and other platforms and in my tagline I told people looking for me how to contact/find me.
reachableceo 2y ago
I’m working on exactly this. Would love to collaborate. Reachableceo@turnsys.com.
akho 2y ago
Cloudflare dynamic dns and cloudflare tunnels get you there. Of course, now you're relying on Cloudflare's free tier to continue to exist. I think that the right place to provide this is at ISP level, positioning as a beefier router with extras.
- packetlost 2y ago
  I disagree. This is something that should be completely independent of an ISP. Maybe we should have some standard protocols that facilitate it, but not be exclusively provided by ISPs. I worked for an ISP before and did multiple projects involving consumer hardware. You do not want to be tied to whatever garbage your ISP decides to buy in bulk and give to.
  - akho 2y ago
    I'm doing well regarding my self-hosting. Question is not what I want, but who can best deliver this sort of service to a wide consumer base. This will produce no extra load for ISPs, will drive little additional complexity for users (one device for internet things). You want your stuff to be movable between ISPs, however, so your domain registrar should be separate. ISPs are not great, true, but why not build a good one? For a change.

idontwantthis 2y ago

I’ve thought about making my own homepage to replace my instagram/fb and share my life with my friends, but how would anyone find it? I guess I could email everyone and tell them. I’ve wondered if there is a way I could easily get that to the top of Google for my name, but there are a few famous people with my name.

packetlost 2y ago
I feel like Fediverse/Mastodon and/or Bluesky sort of solve this problem though. Fediverse in particular has a pretty rich ecosystem with niches for Twitter-like, Instagram-like, Reddit-like, and (I think) even Facebook-like. There's also RSS feeds
- TylerE 2y ago
  I look at those Fediverse things and they just feel like toys. Horrible, confusing UX. Very limited feature sets. Mediocre performance, at best. if that's supposed to be the future, call me a luddite I guess.
nytesky 2y ago
You could get the URL out. I would like to have it require some authentication, and I don’t see too many easy ways to add authentication. I use Google Workspace for hosting and I guess it would default to Google IDs? Does SquareSpace provide access control for low cost accounts?
volkk 2y ago
does it make sense to have a "social" network that in essence is _only_ a directory? looking up someone works well, and links to some external site. full stop
- idontwantthis 2y ago
  I’d love something like that. Ultra low cost and simple. But I don’t know if it really has a purpose.
- 1659447091 2y ago
  This reminds me of Hotline[0]. Chat, message board, file sharing. Late 90's, early 2000's, but apparently there is still a small community around it going. Super easy to run your own server to host content from a desk/laptop and super easy to use a client to visit other servers. You could find servers using trackers (name severs that kept track of hotline servers) or keep the server private and only give out the server info to people you want. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications
Larrikin 2y ago
If you're sharing it with your friends and family, why does it matter if Google can find it? And if they are your friends why wouldn't you share it with them directly? The Internet felt a lot better when people were making the content for themselves and a community that they were part of.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >and a community that they were part of. well that's the issue. There is no "small community" these days like there would be in the Usenet days. At least not a genreal purpose one for blogging whatever is on your mind. My parents wouldn't really care much about the content so much as supporting me. My friends don't necessarily share all the same interests as me. So you want to seek out like strangers on the internet to bond with. That's part of why we transitioned to early web 2.0 of utilizing a middleman to host content, and use that to attract a community. The internet grew and people could focus exclusively on what they were genuinely interested in, as opposed to subscribing to users directly.
mtnGoat 2y ago
I made placeholder accounts on meta and other platforms and in my tagline I told people looking for me how to contact/find me.

reachableceo 2y ago

I’m working on exactly this. Would love to collaborate. Reachableceo@turnsys.com.

akho 2y ago

Cloudflare dynamic dns and cloudflare tunnels get you there. Of course, now you're relying on Cloudflare's free tier to continue to exist. I think that the right place to provide this is at ISP level, positioning as a beefier router with extras.

packetlost 2y ago
I disagree. This is something that should be completely independent of an ISP. Maybe we should have some standard protocols that facilitate it, but not be exclusively provided by ISPs. I worked for an ISP before and did multiple projects involving consumer hardware. You do not want to be tied to whatever garbage your ISP decides to buy in bulk and give to.
- akho 2y ago
  I'm doing well regarding my self-hosting. Question is not what I want, but who can best deliver this sort of service to a wide consumer base. This will produce no extra load for ISPs, will drive little additional complexity for users (one device for internet things). You want your stuff to be movable between ISPs, however, so your domain registrar should be separate. ISPs are not great, true, but why not build a good one? For a change.