550
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hi everyone,

I’m a PhD student in Computer Science researching why people choose to self-host software—what motivates you, what concerns you, and what factors affect your decision-making.

To better understand this, I’ve prepared a short anonymous survey (~10 minutes). Your insights as part of the self-hosting community would be incredibly valuable for this research.

🔗 Survey link: https://survey.lpt.feri.um.si/376953?newtest=Y&lang=en&s=ls

This study is part of my doctoral research at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, conducted under the supervision of Assist. Prof. Lili Nemec Zlatolas, PhD. All responses are anonymous and used strictly for academic purposes.

If you’ve ever self-hosted anything—or even just considered it—I’d really appreciate your input.

Thanks a lot for your time, and feel free to ask me anything about the project ([email protected])!

Cheers!

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Done but I felt lots of questions to be very similar. Maybe there is a form platform that can show only a subset of control questions for every survey.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

Done, though some of the questions were redundant or weirdly phrased.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

This is actually a technique to capture an honest answer from a respondent. Ask the same question a few different ways here and there, then take the average of the answers. (It could have been executed better in this survey, though.)

[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

You're absolutely right, rephrasing similar questions is a common technique in survey design to reduce bias and improve reliability.

Some questions may feel a bit redundant or oddly phrased because we based the survey on validated constructs from prior academic research, especially well-established models like the Technology Acceptance Model. Using these standardized scales helps ensure the results are scientifically sound and comparable with previous studies - though I totally get that it can feel repetitive from a participant’s point of view.

That said, I really appreciate the feedback from both of you.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I have a feeling for that to be effective they should be spread-out and not appear one after another though.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

Good luck on the thesis and I hope my data points can assist your research! I'm sure the community would love to see your finished thesis when it is done

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Done. Many questions which are the same or almost similar.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Thank you for participating in the survey and for providing your feedback.

We are aware that some of the statements may appear similar or closely related. This is an intentional aspect of the survey design, aimed at capturing different dimensions of the same underlying construct or thematic area. In scientific research, it is a well-established and widely used practice to include multiple, conceptually related items when measuring a specific concept.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

I added my answers. Good luck on your thesis!

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

I hope you share the results when your thesis is done :)

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago
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[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Submitted.

I am in finance/accounting/consulting and I run one self hosted small server at home to manage my home machines remotely and use it with combo of proton to do most things.

While I am in the process of de-googleing I haven't self hosted photo or email yet as proton has been working okay for the time being. One step at a time I guess for me... I am not in IT so it requires time for me to read up on things and set them up (rtfm indeed)....(yes we all know what proton CEO said.... )...let's see how it pans out.and this has been quite a journey for me. I am still having issues with family and friends not wanting to use jitsi (that I am using for calls or contact me on signal). I have basically thrown WhatsApp and anything I don't care about within beeper under a work profile (android) I.e. in a sandbox / appimage (laptop).

Personally if next cloud allowed self hosting with self email hosting (whatever the technical terminology is) that would have been (chef's kiss) muah....I would have jumped on it first hand...

Sorry I am not in IT so my jargon usage might be sub par.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Thanks, much appreciated!

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Many of my self hosted solutions are just DIY cludges. I was talking to a friend of a friend on Saturday about media streaming and he told me all about his Jellyfin setup and then asked about mine and I was just like "I just store MP4s on an SSHFS drive and play them in VLC on my TV (which runs Linux Mint)." When the survey asked about the various types of software I was like "No... I don't use anything like that... wait... yes I do! I just don't use a prebuilt solution!"

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Done, and link forwarded to my non Lemmy using selfhosting mentor. Maybe can get at least one more respondant. Maybe more. Good luck!

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago
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this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
550 points (96.8% liked)

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