I feel like over the past few months, the main thing preventing me from getting super active in the fediverse has been all of the drama surrounding federation and instances shutting down.
I just want to be able to turn my brain off, and not have to think “Will this instance be around in 6 months?” every time I post.
As a result, I’ve been thinking about creating a Lemmy and/or Mastodon instance that is literally just me and no one else. No communities or anything, simply me posting to other instances via this private instance. And I know that this instance will stay alive and federated for as long as I keep hosting it.
However before I go through the effort of setting these up, I want to know what people think about private instances. Is this bad taste? Is it a logistical nightmare? Have people done this before? And what would the hardware requirements for a 1 user instance look like?
There are plenty of people that do this, and it seems to be pretty straightforward.
There is a significant risk going forward though- if the undesirables (the ones that currently get larger instances defederated) start doing this in any major way, then the larger instances will block new federation or smaller instances by default. Starting now is actually probably a good move, since you might be grandfathered in when that occurs.
Also, be aware of local laws regarding content you host. You could be liable for illegal content you inadvertantly receive.
There is a “private instance” button in the admin settings, but while it sounds perfect (prevents anyone not logged in seeing your instance), it currently breaks federation (or rather, stops your instance from starting up) which makes it useless for single-user instances :/
I think it’s inevitable; I imagine that in the future there will be an application and vetting process if you want to federate with a major instance, as most users will not be interested in running their own instances, and your federation can be a source of work for the mods/admins.