Online Communities
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What You Need to Self-Host a Community
A practical checklist of the server, domain, email, security, backup and human resources needed to self-host an online community.
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Hosting Your Own Social Network
A plain overview of running your own social network: how federation works, software styles, and the moderation workload.
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Running a Self-Hosted Community
A practical hub guide to choosing software, sizing servers, securing access and moderating a self-hosted community.
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Starting and Maintaining Your Own Mastodon Server
A practical guide to starting a Mastodon server and keeping it healthy, from server prep and installation to backups, updates and moderation.
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Choosing Forum Software for Your Community
How to choose forum software for a self-hosted community: Discourse and Flarum compared, hosting needs, sizing rules and a pre-launch checklist.
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Moderation Basics for Small Online Communities
A practical look at writing community moderation guidelines: what to include, how graduated responses work, and how to keep moderation fair.
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The Bulletin Board: Origins and Modern Use
From cork boards to the first dial-up BBS in 1978, the bulletin board idea still shapes how small communities share messages.