A newbie's guide to self-hosting: GoToSocial part 1 (installation and set-up)

A year ago I published an article about GoToSocial, a fediverse microblogging software (think of it as an alternative to Mastodon or Sharkey ) that I had been using and loving. That is still very much the case, a year and a half after I first started using it:GoToSocial empowers you to have your own home on the Fediverse - with unique controls An overview of GoToSocial: a fast, lightweight, security-focused server that makes self-hosting on the Fediverse easy

I have a special soft spot for GoToSocial because it is the very first app I ever installed with YunoHost: the first stepping stone in my great self-hosting adventures. Therefore, no self-hosting guide for newbies would be complete without a tutorial about how to install and set-up the brilliant GoToSocial.

I initially thought I would cover everything in one post, but there is so much to discuss that I will break up the tutorial in different chapters, so that the information does not get too overwhelming. This first installment will discuss: 1) picking a domain name to use 2) associating the domain name to your YunoHost installation 3) installing GoToSocial 4) doing some essential tweaks to boost security

Why Now?

We are at a crucial moment in time: many governments around the world are introducing mandatory age verification for social media users. The reason (or rather “excuse”)? Protecting children from harmful online content. And yet privacy experts have been denouncing these initiatives as inadequate and dangerous and have been raising alarms as these efforts are tantamount to a Trojan horse bringing in the end of anonymity on the internet.

source: Tutanota

As an individual, I feel powerless opposing these forces. I am really concerned about the state of the fediverse - which does not have infrastructure in place to comply with these laws - and as an act of resistance and survival, I think it's more important than ever to teach how to self-host your own social media instance. I feel that self-host…