this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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I selfhost because I want to be in control of my data and own it. Closed software is the antithesis of that. They're just bots trying to advertise their software.
So, please do share how your homelab has indexed the entire global internet, so you can use your 100% selfhosted, 100% open source search engine? I'm very interested. I've always wanted to run a search engine that is not tied to someone else's.
That's a petty troll response to a legitimate statement of what someone wants (which aligns with this group's stated focus), where they aren't claiming what they have done
It's not trolling at all. You stated you got into self hosting because you wanted opensource and you want to retain all of your data. I'm asking you to share your homelab set up. A lot of people would be genuinely interested. The point being, all the gnashing of teeth is a duplicitous argument. If you truly do as you stated, then I'm wondering how you search a global internet from your homelab that indexes it all.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You're sealioning this guy about his self-hosting setup and implying that we must freely accept all closed source and closed data in all areas simply because the "search" you seem to have rhetorically fixated on doesn't have a fully independent open source implementation?
That's a disingenuous argument, and you're absolutely trolling. With all due respect: shut the fuck up.
How about you roll that up real tight and gently guide it into your mum's cunt and fuck her with it.
Thanks for letting me and everyone else know you're childish and stupid enough to be worth blocking.
Kind for kind.
good job friend. very grown up
Don't tell me to shut the fuck up if you aren't willing to hear a very blunt retort.
shows how weak you are :)
Your opinion...something, something assholes
Please, keep demonstrating the type of person you are. its hilarious
I'm glad to be bringing some jocularity to an otherwise dismal thread.
youre a joke within a normal conversation
...and you keep coming back to tell me how hilarious I am. How hilarious it that? Who is the weak one now?
its some minor entertainment. keeps you distracted from crying elsewhere
Here you are again. LOL
Same as you 🥰
Sigh... As always, life must be balanced. You can't go from one extreme to the other. It's a spectrum. I self-host what I deem important in order to keep it under my control and not on a capitalist platform.
It's an adventure, each month, you learn more and realize that you can host more services yourself.
And I applaud you for that. However, the fact remains, that not everyone selfhosts for the same reasons. I got into selfhosting because I wanted to be as private, as secure, and as anonymous as I could be. However, I do thoroughly enjoy learning how to do things on my server. At my age, it's good to keep what's left of my brain active. I genuinely like to tinker. I do also make concessions.
I looked at the rules, and I can't find anything about closed source. I did find 'without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don’t control.' The reason this thread exists is because some people think closed source that integrates with selfhosted, opensource, is 100% out, and I find no evidence of such. It also states 'Be civil: we’re here to support and learn from one another. Insults won’t be tolerated.' Civility: Hey is this open source? Was it vibe coded? Ok no thanks bro.' It sure isn't the dog pile on the rabbit we see most of the time here when something AI, paid for, or closed source that integrates with opensource threads show up.
I agree that 100% asking selfhosters to outright buy something should be out. We've seen a few of these. But, again, the reason this thread was started was because a dev asked a bunch of selfhosters to beta test an app that integrates with what most here run, and in return for your efforts, he will let you keep the app if you so desire. So, you actually do retain control. You can pass. You can beta test. You can uninstall. Your choice.
Self-hosting is a community effort in which the whole community helps each other to self-host their data, including programming the services people use for this purpose. The problem with closed-source software is that we don't know what's happening behind the scenes, or if it's indeed sending telemetry.
Even worse, if that service is ever no longer supported or updated, I'll be left with data on my server that can't be used to its full potential, and a service that won't receive security updates.
Open-source software, on the other hand, is a community effort. If, for example, software is no longer updated or supported, it can easily be forked, and my data can be transferred to the new service.