Since I am not the one to go right at the simplest option out there, the first thing I set up, was of course nginx. Also, since absolutely everything in this world is news to me, I have almost no memory at this point of time of it.
Well, it is The King. One does not simply just install Caddy, right?

All worked out. And it was a huge overkill for my setup too. But I can now say by maintaining honour, whenever anyone would ask, that I’ve at least seen it. Touched it too. And everything worked after me touching it.

Server

Now I use Caddy. So this is the one thing in it.

The whole thing started out because of my wish to have an onion.site to represent my clear web site on the darker side. The only thing I have not yet managed to set up is of course the onion.site. But it is on its way!

Meanwhile I’ve had other burning desires. Like keeping some sorts of notes so that they were accessible from whatever device I happen to hold in my hand/ sit in front of. To hoard the bookmarks so, that I wouldn’t loose a will to browse them after saving them (for example because of the unbearable discomfort - be it the UX or something else I am not able to adapt to). Also I needed something in between my desktop(s) and Android phone to (mostly) store my neverending stream of video clips that I need for my social media reels.

Keeping Notes

For notes and thoughts I have eventually landed on Trilium. It has much more powerful features that I use right now but I like it more than other options. And also a bit more than plain text notes here and there.

Some time ago I used Joplin for quite a while and before and after that TiddlyWiki. The latter is aslo an amazing thing! I am able to drown in it, building structures and systems for days. Trilium offers similar opportunity (getting lost in building) but for some reason is not that intensively inviting. An this is what I need - I need to keep notes, not build another awesome system! But it is good to know that I might, when I want to!

Bookmarks

This was a difficult one. There are many out there and at the moment I am landed on the Karakeep. It appeares that I am not able to adapt to any that is just tags-based. They’re simple enough, look clean and nice but I never found what I was looking for. I like putting things in directories. And then may-be adding some tags… One of the important points for me was the browser addon and Android app.

Web Analytics

I moved away from large providers some time ago. I am very proud to announce, that my clear web site is free of anything collecting and tracking anyone’s likes-shares-thoughts and underwear color. I lately changed hosts too and the statistics app they offer is surprisingly sad - though it also does not care for your other interests. So there’s a plus, but it was really boring sight too. I found the HitKeep quite nice and interesting, so this is what’s in it too.

Personal Cloud

Nextcloud is an overkill for me. Immich looks very attractive but it is also larger (meaning heavier) than my current favourite and is designed mainly for media files. I occasionally have other formats too to host or exchange between devices too. Filebrowser caught my eye - but then it got better. It has a fork named Filebrowser Quantum

There will be a post about how I manage my neverending flow of files between desktop (void linux) and Android phone so I do not lose my sanity.

Managing Docker

Watching fellow self-hosters conjuring neat colorful data overviews - even from their phones - to check if the container is up or down, filled me with deep desire to also have some sort of ‘panel’ to see what’s happening in a neatly arranged browser window (at least). So I have set up Dockge. It is by far not as fancy and glistering as I have seen but it allows me to update and debug all the container contents from one window. (Yes, I know we can have a very nice overview of everything in our choice of terminal emulator too but one may allow a little bloat once in a while, right?). I still have to make it approachable from outside of local network to summon it onto other screens when comparing notes with other hosters.

ddns

And last but not least - since we do not possess the power of static IP, we also have ddns-go set up that checks once-in-a-while if it needs to be updated.

Blog

And now this blog that uses Hugo. Hugo will be powering my renewed clear-web site too, which is currently running on Wordpress. And after that, some things stripped, my onion.site.