I self-hosted an instance a when I got here a few days ago. The server costs me the same whether I use it or not, so I’d like to let as many people sign up as I can. I had a few people sign up already before join-lemmy.org was changed to require 5 monthly active users, but now my instance isn’t shown there because it’s below the limit.
Any idea on how to attract a dozen or so users so that I can show up on the main join-lemmy page again?
Post it on relevant Reddit threads?
Use a throwaway to be safe. Some communities have been open to it, others haven’t. If you don’t have a throwaway I hate suggesting create one (because it tells their investors that they’re growing), but you could make one that’s named something like “FollowXOnLemmy” or something
Just guessing but… Ironically, post on /r/lemmymigration. Have clear rules and community expectations that tell people what your instance is about.
I’m self hosted too debating if I’m gonna open mine or keep it closed. I really did it as a learning experience, fun and curiosity. Hosting costs will barely be a Starbucks drink a month as is…
What provider are you using to host? I’ve got a hostgator shared plan for a personal site but wasn’t sure if I’d specifically need a VPS to do it.
I’m using cloudzy VPS. It’s cheap but realized that smtp ports are blocked today… So gotta look into what to do about that if I want to use this instance beyond a private one. Email would be required for forgot passwords, registrations, etc…
You almost certainly want to outsource email to something like SendGrid anyway. Hosting your own email server is harder than it’s worth these days.
Aren’t people getting banned on Reddit for promoting lemmy?
Well, I just made a post over there so we’ll see. I don’t have any emotional or other attachment to my reddit account anyway, so if they ban me I won’t be sad about it.
Sorry about the extra duplicate posts. I’m using the mlem app on iOS and I guess it’s still a bit buggy. Time to file some bugs.
Not at all relevant to what your post is about, but I read neuromancer recently and that book is fuckin fantastic.
