this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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133
I need a new hobby, I'm going to set up my own Lemmy instance. Am I an idiot? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago by AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
77 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Of the many useful things I could do with my spare time instead I'm setting up a Lemmy instance because why not. The scope of this is definitely greater than any self-hosting I've ever attempted, so please feel free to tell me just how much trouble I'm in. I'm just giving the broad strokes to see if I've made any crucial errors (other than deciding to do this at all).

And if this is a completely wrong place for a post like this or I'm missing data I'm supposed to include I apologize, I probably need a sanity check, in more ways than one.

First limitation, I'll be hosting it on an existing Linux Mint box acting as a file share mostly and occasional gaming PC/movie streaming box. Its hardware is overkill for this, I do not anticipate issues when it is in use. It receives regular updates and weekly reboots, instance will be set to automatically restart. NVMe with loads of space for local storage, RAID SSDs for data offload/backup.

Second limitation, I hate Cloudfare and Oracle. I do not want to use either of them.

Third limitation, money. Cheaper is better. I have a URL picked out and a registrar which will give me the cheapest long term option, in case I actually keep this thing going.

Last limitation, I'm already in over my head so I'll be relying on a lot of googling and probably some chat bots to figure things out as I go through the actual deployment process. What could go wrong?

So, Lemmy hosted on Linux Mint box using Docker containers. ISP is a good one for this I'm told, no CGNAT, largely stable public IP but I'll have a script running in case it does change. Confirmed ports 80/443 are open. Using Caddy for the HTTPS. Closed registration to start, if by some miracle I make it to actually wanting to allow additional users it will not be fully open, and I'll use Brevo for the email SMTP. Security wise I know I'm making it harder for myself by exposing my IP, I'm going to have UFW running and Crowdsec to help keep incoming bad traffic out.

Down the line I'll get Lemmy updates, backups, retention rules in place/automated, and make decisions on federation, etc. Thoughts?

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[–] girlpower@piefed.world 0 points 22 minutes ago* (last edited 21 minutes ago) (1 children)

I probably wouldn't host it at home, there are so many personal devices containing personal information on the network that I don't consider the risks involved worth it. I would get a VPS, even if they've increased in price lately. If you do set it up at home, you will have to harden the server and the network, and that requires a lot of time, knowledge and effort. Just keep this in mind!

[–] motruck@lemmy.zip 1 points 12 minutes ago

You can easily sequester your personal stuff from your self hosted stuff. Most traffic going anywhere is encrypted as it should be. The main concern is lateral movement hence the network isolation.

[–] PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social 5 points 5 hours ago

I would NOT host a Lemmy instance at home unless you're going to obfuscate your IP address. If you make it public, you're inviting any whackjob that sees your username to find your physical location. Additionally, I wouldn't host it on a PC that you actually intend to use for day to day stuff, just in case the instance gets hacked and someone manages to escape the container it's in. If you wanted to do this, I would put it on its own box with Cloudflare in front of it, otherwise you're inviting trouble where there doesn't need to be any.

[–] shadshack@feddit.online 5 points 9 hours ago

The only thing I'd say is look into whatever tooling and scripts people have made for removing CSAM from your instance. I messed around with a Lemmy instance for a bit, but when I heard about how hard it was to deal with the pedos, I got a little scared about inadvertently hosting CSAM and decided to shut it down. Since then I think I remember hearing about some better automated tooling for that kind of thing though so hopefully you can set that up.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

I keep considering the same thing, except only letting myself register so that I can have my own stupid instance name.

[–] Jimbabwe@lemmy.world 84 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Probably, yes, but I still love you

[–] AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You sound like my wife.

[–] Marthirial@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Plot twist. You are not married...

[–] AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

Sure I am, but depending on how much of my free time goes into this we'll see if it stays that way....

[–] moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Yes. Do PieFed.

Also, don't do cloudflare. If you must use something, make sure it's self hosted.

[–] chewypoops@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

You will learn a ton. Also, you will spend a lot of money hosting an activitypub instance. I run a server for fun, and it's about $40/month to handle the absolute firehose of assets I receive 24/7.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 8 points 21 hours ago

Maybe. Do it anyway?

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 3 points 17 hours ago

Do it. You'll learn something new. Maybe you'll even contribute to the code.

[–] Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago) (1 children)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
CGNAT Carrier-Grade NAT
CSAM Child Sexual Abuse Material
DNS Domain Name Service/System
ISP Internet Service Provider
NAT Network Address Translation
TLS Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL
VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
nginx Popular HTTP server

8 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 10 acronyms.

[Thread #76 for this comm, first seen 11th Aug 2026, 19:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 6 points 18 hours ago

We need more of this across all Platoforms for discovery and learning. Thank you!

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Just in general or because you're setting up a Lemmy instance?

[–] AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Well in general I know I'm an idiot, so for the moment I'll just stick with Lemmy instance feedback cause that's at least easier for me to address without expensive therapy.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

allow additional users it will not be fully open

Just for trusted friends or randos? If randos, have you ever been a mod? Never set up a Lemmy instance, but I have been a mod of quite a few Reddit subs. It's a headache I will never engage in again.

[–] AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Not complete randos, but yeah it'll likely be a very minimal group of people if at all. And I'm not looking forward to modding so I doubt I'll go the route if having a lot of comms in my instance, but we'll see what happens.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Alright man. Best of luck. Give it a go. You'll never know how it will turn out unless you try.

[–] ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (3 children)

My instance has been online for about a month, the supplied docker-compose.yaml was quite straightforward, had a little headache with Nginx but nothing overly complicated.

The long-con so to speak is federation, you have to subscribe to each community manually to begin federating with them, i have noticed timing issues with other instances such as Lemmy.world and have not been able to resolve them.

[–] joker54@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 15 hours ago

I'll write a script you can use to seed with top communities. I already have most the work done.

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[–] ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Best of luck on your new hobby!

I didn’t see anything in your post that set off alarm bells

If you’re looking to save some cash and your ISP gives you a stable public address you could utilize a Dynamic DNS provider (ala duckdns) instead of registering a domain

[–] AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Good point, that was purely a vanity issue: I have a specific name I want for my instance, and I wanted it to be as short a URL as possible so I was willing to spring for the domain. I'm not saying I'm doing all this just for the pun I have in mind, but I did spend far too long on that step of my deployment plan.

[–] gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

oh very interesting. i've been wanting to get into the details of how federation actually works, and i wanted to figure out why mastodon<->lemmy federation does often not seem to work. but i guess that's a deep rabbit hole too!

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 13 hours ago

It does work! To an extent. It's just not popular to do this... Because of the extent. No votes, easy to find threads, etc.

[–] ranslite@pie.dasneuland.de 11 points 1 day ago

Not lemmy, but piefed. The easy way, try yunohost.

[–] spirinolas@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago

Yes, you are, but aren't we all?

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 8 points 1 day ago

Cool man... I did the same last year, best decision ever.

Pretty easy too

[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 4 points 22 hours ago (5 children)

Yes you are mad, I know as I did that over 3 years ago. Went from at home => a cheep VPS => paid for Oracle VPS.

If you go down the lemmy route (vs piefed) then I would deply with Lemmy-Easy-Deploy by @ubergeek77. this makes setting Caddy and mail simple

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[–] FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Update with a link to your instance when you've done it so we can show some love and support

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I would not do that without first looking into applicable laws regarding legal liability for content and requirements to remove things. Depending on where in the world you are, this can be a minefield.

[–] moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 1 points 16 hours ago

Especially because Lemmy devs don't five a fuck about instance admins liabilities or gdpr

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[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Lemmy eventually plans on having an invite system, you could maybe use that when it comes out

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/4128

(You can also do this manually with the application questionnaire field and a spreadsheet)

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