this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Selfhosted

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A number of brand new accounts have popped up shilling their paid for applications.

Is this within the rules? Is the community happy with this? Could mods clarify this in the rules?

Either allowing advertising, or banning it entirely.

my point is - there is a difference between an open source homegrown project that might be useful, vs closed source paid for projects from brand new accounts

some replies are misunderstanding, somehow.

I am against

brand new accounts who:

  1. first post is a brand new project
  2. project is closed source
  3. project will cost money
  4. is asking for free testing
  5. the post is literally an advertisement
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[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 14 minutes ago

This is the selfhosted community. Not the Free, Open Source community.

I think you can infer the rules from the name here. The stuff you post must be related to software you can host on your own hardware. It need not be free, nor open source.

Now your point about spam from brand new accounts that are literally just ads on the other hand is valid.

[–] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

if they are obviously bot or dedicated marketing accounts, then no I dont think they should be here.

However, I'm not 100% opposed to closed source/paid software being discussed here, but it should clearly marked as such, with a flair that people can filter out if they so choose.

If someone posts asking about whether there are any alternatives to a paid closed source program, that's a totally valid conversation, and if it turns out there is no FOSS alternative, then we have to talk about paid closed alternatives, find the one that offers the best value and vet for trustworthiness.

The rules say nothing about selling a paid service, but maybe "no spam" should be updated with some clarity on self promotion, so perhaps you can self promote your FOSS service with the appropriate flair, but if you are selling a paid closed service it shouldn’t be allowed?

[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

discussing a product is not the same as someone literally advertising their paid for product.

are you ok with advertising on this community?

[–] placebo@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 hours ago

I'm here for genuine interactions with other people. So I'm not a fan of ads from brand new accounts that will never engage with the community or enrich it.

[–] realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 5 points 2 hours ago

I don't think "selfhosting" and "paid for" goes hand in hand because, at the end of the day, the application somehow will still contact some authentication server or some similar bullshit. That's the contrary of what most people want from selfhosting.

I think this community should stick to actual OSS, free applications, not some semi-corporate bullshit.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 121 points 5 hours ago (30 children)

I think new accounts that show up to shil their app should be banned. They're not actively participating in the community, it's just spam. There's been a huge uptick recently.

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[–] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 4 hours ago

I don't want this community, or any community on Lemmy for that matter, to become a lucrative platform for advertisers. If someone wants to promote their own product that they made, they should have some credibility as a real person beforehand. Not a brand-new account trying to sell a subscription to an app that's essentially still in open beta.

[–] Mordikan@kbin.earth 59 points 5 hours ago

At it's heart, this is what @selfhosted is meant for:

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

I would say that members talking about paid/closed products they use (ex. "I connect to this via Tailscale" or "I use company ABC for hosted VPS") to accomplish something is fine, but marketing or job boarding (ex. "Looking for QA on my commercial product") is not.

[–] chisel@piefed.social 24 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Advertised? I'd vote no. Discussed? I'm all for it.

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[–] xyro@morbier.foo 11 points 4 hours ago

If their first interaction with a community is to try to sell their shit, i don't think they're gonna be welcome anywhere

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