The original post: /r/selfhosted by /u/GAGARIN0461 on 2024-11-13 20:22:30.

Let’s be real here. Every other post in this sub is someone “showing off” a self-hosted media server or running a single Docker container on their old laptop and calling it a homelab. Can we stop pretending this is actual self-hosting? If your “infrastructure” goes down when your roommate trips over the Ethernet cable, maybe it’s time to reconsider your setup.

Self-hosting means more than just slapping together a handful of containers and calling it a day. What happened to deploying an actual cluster? Load balancing? Redundant power supplies? If you’re not running at least a Kubernetes cluster with persistent storage and failover, are you really self-hosting? Or are you just tinkering with a glorified home media setup?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about starting small. But maybe it’s time we stop calling basic setups “homelabs” and recognize them for what they are: hobbies. Real infrastructure goes beyond running Plex and Nextcloud on a Raspberry Pi with 1GB of RAM.