Tis the season for homelab shaming

As an avid self-hoster and homelab enthusiast, I follow many content creators in this space. Many (if not all of them) are posting about their homelab hardware or what software they are running on it since it is the end of the year and they are out of content ideas. I have a major problem with these posts and most of these accounts.

The creators in this space try their best to gatekeep self-hosting. They often post about having huge racks using a thousand watts in their basement or the rec room above their garage and they do everything they can to shame you about not spending thousands of dollars on enterprise hardware. I get it, they need new hardware all the time so they can post a new video for those sweet, sweet, YouTube ad revenue and Amazon affiliate marketing links.

The self-hosting community does what it can to discourage low income folks from participating. Then, when those folks do join in, shame them for old hardware and slow networks. Sometimes this is outright finger pointing. But most times it is backhanded by perpetually flexing on various social media sites the massive hardware upgrades they’ve done for literally no reason other than “I have the money”.

I want to say that if you want to get into homelabbing, use whatever you have and what you can afford. You don’t need dual Xeon processors. You don’t need 10 gigabit networking. You don’t need a rack.

I wish there were more people talking about how they self-host with old, cobbled together systems. I wish more people would discourage others from generating massive amounts of e-waste because there might be something slightly faster out there.

So, I’m unsubscribing from basically all the creators for self-hosting and homelabbing. I’m tired of feeling shamed for using a laptop from 2014 for my homelab.

Related, I’m actually unsubbing from 90% of tech related content. The privilege that oozes from these folks has become unbearable. Please, if you know of anyone, point me to people who are focused on low-powered and upcycled tech, with an emphasis on inclusion. I want to follow those folks.

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