Disclaimer: I’m no expert on this.

I realized recently there are two common types of Self Hosters here.

  1. I work in IT and host some services for my employer so we don’t have to rely on the big tech companies, for economic or other reasons.

  2. I self host some services at home or on a VPS, as a hobby or for other reasons, but nobody pays me to do that.

The answers people provide seem to vary greatly based on whether the commenter is in the #1 or #2 camp. I myself have gotten answers along the lines of, “why aren’t you acting more like a paid IT person?” and it’s a little off-putting.

How to resolve this? Could we refer to one group or the other differently?

Maybe I’m making a bigger deal out of this than is warranted and I’m the only one confused?

If nothing else, I will call out my hobby status from now on when posting/commenting here.

Edited to add: TIL. I’ll use these terms carefully in the future. Thanks!

  • fine_sandy_bottomEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    I don’t think it’s really a big deal ?

    We’re all playing around with things in the same domain. Does it really matter if someone is paid and someone else isn’t?

    I don’t necessarily agree that a paid / qualified person will necessarily be operating at a higher level just generally than a hobbyist. Professionals tend to know lots about very specific things, hobbyists tend to invest a lot more time and effort into building elegant solutions.

    Yes some answers from IT professionals may be unhelpful for hobbyists but that’s just part of interacting with other people.