With all our discussion recently about BBS systems, modern interfaces, the growing anger against big tech, etc. I wanted to tell a bit about what I've been doing over the past 3 months.

Like many people, I do not trust big tech anymore. However, I realized that so much of what I use was integrated into it. I had long ago abandoned my "home lab" setup, lured by the promise of the cloud and how easy everything was in the cloud.

But now I wanted out. I wanted my data to be my data. I wanted to decide what features I needed, and when I needed them. Most importantly, I did not want AI scraping and training off my data by stealing it.

What I discovered was, much to my surprise, how easy de-big teching my life was. Which did surprise me.

First, I bought a sub-$100 SFF HP i5 with 32GB of RAM and a 750GB SSD off Facebook marketplace. I then installed Linux on it and slapped Docker on it.

From there - I discovered the world of self-hosting. Papra for my documentation management; gist for sharing/storing notes/recipes/you name it; a self-hosted bookmark app; self-hosted blog. All happily running in individual Docker containers on my little sub $100 PC.

I should note as I did this I was careful to always follow best security practices. Absolute minimum exposed to public web, and I had an edge router I've had for years - so it's own dedicated physical network for connection.

Pretty soon, I tackled data storage - the biggest task - I discovered how easy it was to setup my own file storage, redundant with secure backups. I can even access it securely from my mobile device or anywhere else with a few clicks.

And here's the kicker -- this stuff was not hard to do. Thanks to Docker and a myriad of sites out there that walk you through configuration and setup, it was a breeze for most of it!

Now, 3 months later -- I am saving $60/month on subscription fees I have cancelled out of my life. I have disconnected from "big tech" in a meaningful way and feel I have control over my data now. Most importantly, I feel I am learning again by maintaining my own. I am not longer upset because some cloud service changed their interface one day -- I control when the interface changes, and if it changes at all.

In short, I did my tiny part to give big tech and the tech bros the boot from my life as much as possible. It feels good, and I feel I am not only saving money, but I have more control over my own data now than I ever had before.

-dmxrob

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■ Synchronet ■ Hard Drive Cafe - hdcbbs.com

Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Dmxrob to All on Sun Aug 30 2026 09:09 am

meaningful way and feel I have control over my data now. Most importantly, I > feel I am learning again by maintaining my own. I am not longer upset
because some cloud service changed their interface one day -- I control when the interface changes, and if it changes at all.

In short, I did my tiny part to give big tech and the tech bros the boot from > my life as much as possible. It feels good, and I feel I am not only saving
money, but I have more control over my own data now than I ever had before. >

Do you have a credit card? Do you or your family members use facebook?
You have no control. They already have you.

--
https://i.imgur.com/MNKA5U0.png
President of BBS Sysop's Union +++ https://bbses.info/union
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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Dmxrob wrote to All <=-

From there - I discovered the world of self-hosting. Papra for my documentation management; gist for sharing/storing notes/recipes/you
name it; a self-hosted bookmark app; self-hosted blog. All happily running in individual Docker containers on my little sub $100 PC.

I want to look more into documentation and bookmark management. I've
gone on a scanning bender and scanned/shredded a ton of papers. It'd be
nice to have flexible tags and search for my documents at home.

I switched to Raindrop when my previous bookmark manager closed down,
played with Parakeep a bit. I might go back to it.

I have a homelab already, use it mostly for hosting the BBS and
creating test environments at work. Been wanting to build in more
self-hosted data tools, though.

There's a homelab echo on tqwnet, there are quite a few people hanging
out there...




... ONE OUT OF FIVE DENTISTS RECOMMEND GUM.
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poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dmxrob <=-

There's a homelab echo on tqwnet, there are quite a few people hanging
out there...

I don't see any homelab sub on tqw... is my echo list outdated, or
you're thinking of some other network?



... Gone crazy, be back later, please leave message.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
■ Synchronet ■ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Re: Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Dmxrob on Mon Aug 31 2026 07:47 am

I want to look more into documentation and bookmark management. I've
gone on a scanning bender and scanned/shredded a ton of papers. It'd be
nice to have flexible tags and search for my documents at home.

Check out Papra - I think you might find it meets your needs. I love it because I can run it in a Docker container with persistent storage and just makes everything so "convenient". I have an hourly cron job that backs up everything to an encrypted storage bucket as well.

I have a homelab already, use it mostly for hosting the BBS and
creating test environments at work. Been wanting to build in more
self-hosted data tools, though.

Go for it! So many people I know who were big into homelabs and got out of it with the "cloud rush" a decade or 15 ago are now starting to get back into them. The best thing is you can run most everything you need today on the smallest/tiniest of systems using Docker! No more racks of equipment sucking up the power bill!

-dmxrob

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■ Synchronet ■ Hard Drive Cafe - hdcbbs.com

Re: Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Aug 31 2026 02:01 pm

I don't see any homelab sub on tqw... is my echo list outdated, or you're thinking of some other network?

Might be out of date, it was added several months back.

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■ Synchronet ■ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Re: Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Aug 31 2026 02:01 pm

There's a homelab echo on tqwnet, there are quite a few people hanging
out there...

I don't see any homelab sub on tqw... is my echo list outdated, or you're thinking of some other network?

MeaTLoTioN repurposed the TQW_DOCKER echo for Homelab Discussion, but didn't change the name of it (yet).

"I have left the echo tag as TQW_DOCKER for now, but I do intend on changing
it at some point to TQW_HOMELAB - I will send out some notice when I do
have a date in mind."

This was a little over a year ago.

|08──────────────────────────────┐
|15 ▄|07 ▄ |08▄ |11codefenix |08│
|15 █|07███|08█ |09ConstructiveChaos BBS |08│
|15 ▐|07▄█▄|08▌ |01conchaos.synchro.net |08│ |08──────────────────────────────┘
|07
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■ Synchronet ■ -=[ ConstructiveChaos BBS | conchaos.synchro.net ]=-

Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Dmxrob to All on Sun Aug 30 2026 09:09 am

disconnected from "big tech" in a
meaningful way and feel I have contr

Isn't it sad that a majority of people
out there only know of using platforms
and 3rd party things for all this?
They've never known anything else!

---
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Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: phigan to Dmxrob on Tue Sep 01 2026 12:33 pm

Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Dmxrob to All on Sun Aug 30 2026 09:09 am

disconnected from "big tech" in a meaningful way and feel I have contr

Isn't it sad that a majority of people out there only know of using platforms and 3rd party things for all this? They've never known anything else!

I feel as if you have been born in the 90s forward, you were never given a chance to explore/build your own/run your own. By the time you were a teenager forward everything was going "online". People thought it was normal to pay $5.99/month for this and that, then $12.99 a month, and now $29.99/month.

Luckily we seem to be entering a new era where people are turning away from the big tech - slowly, and not 100% for sure. But at least now I see more people talking about it than ever before. I think you have Flock and Data Center buildouts to thank for that - along with the fact that most of the tech bro trillionaires and billionaires nowadays are pure assholes.

-dmxrob

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■ Synchronet ■ Hard Drive Cafe - hdcbbs.com

Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Dmxrob to phigan on Tue Sep 01 2026 05:32 pm

I feel as if you have been born in the 90s forward, you were never given a chance to explore/build your own/run your own. By the time you were a teenager forward everything was going "online". People thought it was normal to pay $5.99/month for this and that, then $12.99 a month, and now $29.99/month.

I've had the same though. I don't like paying recurring subscription fees for things.. I don't even have cable TV, and haven't in years.

Nightfox

Isn't it sad that a majority of people
out there only know of using platforms
and 3rd party things for all this?
They've never known anything else!

I used to selfhost all my email, but that's not so easy anymore. Gmail receives just fine, but Outlook blocks everything because someone got my server's IP on a
blocklist at some point. At least I can still run my own web server, DNS, and BBS.

It really irks me that our IT guy at work may have to setup a Onedrive cloud storage system for our documents instead of a simple onsite FTP server. Heck, even a simple mapped network drive would be fine.

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■ Synchronet ■ IntraServe

poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Aug 31 2026 02:01 pm

I don't see any homelab sub on tqw... is my echo list outdated, or you're thinking of some other network?

Might be out of date, it was added several months back.

Well.... I saw in a post from someone else that the "DOCKER" sub was repurposed to "HOMELAB", but the echo/tag name hasn't been updated yet
(for some reason).



... He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
■ Synchronet ■ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Codefenix wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Gamgee to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Aug 31 2026 02:01 pm

There's a homelab echo on tqwnet, there are quite a few people hanging
out there...

I don't see any homelab sub on tqw... is my echo list outdated, or you're thinking of some other network?

MeaTLoTioN repurposed the TQW_DOCKER echo for Homelab Discussion, but didn't change the name of it (yet).

"I have left the echo tag as TQW_DOCKER for now, but I do intend on changing it at some point to TQW_HOMELAB - I will send out some notice when I do have a date in mind."

This was a little over a year ago.

Okay, that explains it! Must have missed that announcement, thanks very
much for the info.



... Gone crazy, be back later, please leave message.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
■ Synchronet ■ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Well.... I saw in a post from someone else that the "DOCKER" sub was repurposed to "HOMELAB", but the echo/tag name hasn't been updated yet
(for some reason).

It is easier to change the description, without breaking any routings, than it is to change the tag.


---
* ScorpioWeb * capitolcityonline.net * KY, USA

Dumas Walker wrote to Gamgee <=-

Well.... I saw in a post from someone else that the "DOCKER" sub was repurposed to "HOMELAB", but the echo/tag name hasn't been updated yet
(for some reason).

It is easier to change the description, without breaking any routings, than it is to change the tag.

Yes, understood.



... Gone crazy, be back later, please leave message.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
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Re: Re: Taking Back by Going Back
By: Fae Empress to phigan on Tue Sep 01 2026 03:31 pm

I used to selfhost all my email, but
that's not so easy anymore. Gmail

I still host my own mail :). The email
going into spam, or getting blocked by
Outlook, isn't that big of a deal
because I don't really send any.

---
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Dmxrob wrote to phigan <=-

Luckily we seem to be entering a new era where people are turning away from the big tech - slowly, and not 100% for sure. But at least now I
see more people talking about it than ever before.

I'm seeing more gemini spaces, tilde web spaces, blog hosts like bear
blog, and self-publishing than I've seen in a while. Neocities seems to
be doing well, too.


... Accuse the opposition of your crimes, remove the moral high ground.
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Fae Empress wrote to phigan <=-

I used to selfhost all my email, but that's not so easy anymore. Gmail receives just fine, but Outlook blocks everything because someone got
my server's IP on a blocklist at some point. At least I can still run my

own web server,

DNS, and BBS.

Yeah, it seems awfully convenient that the people who overzealously
block inbound email sell outbound email services.

It really irks me that our IT guy at work may have to setup a Onedrive cloud storage system for our documents instead of a simple onsite FTP server. Heck, even a simple mapped network drive would be fine.

Reminds me of the early 2000s, when a small company could do everything
on a linux or FreeBSD box. Inbound mail with Sendmail, IMAPd and
qpopper for email, set up a private NNTP server for local
collaboration, LDAP for address books, an FTP and web server for file
sharing, Samba for internal files... Outlook could talk to all of those
and look a lot like an expensive Exchange or Microsoft small business
server.

I had a pretty good business doing just that.



... A closed system lacks the ability to renew itself.
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