Disclaimer: I’m no expert on this.
I realized recently there are two common types of Self Hosters here.
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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.
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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!
As a #2 person, when my level-of-current-knowledge hits a ceiling and I ask for technical advice in forums or lemmy or even social media, it often comes from a #1 person.
Assuming its specialized knowledge few other #2 have.
Half the time I get an answer (about what and how) AND background explanation (giving context and WHY).
But half the other time a #1 doesnt realize easy things for them are hard for me. When they are miles ahead their answer assumes I have a host of other skills already in place. But I dont know what I don’t know so I dont ask for them.
But … every answer from a helpfull stranger is appreciated. Just bridging knowledge is hard.