Last time I checked this, out of all the options available Serge was the simplest to host and use. Though you need a beefy computer to get fast and/or good responses.

I’ve had my Nextcloud exposed for a long while now without any incidents (that I know of). I know automatic updates are not generally recommended but if you want a lighter load, you could use LSIO’s docker container (I use the standard db in the sample config). I run mine that way with watchtower and can’t recall ever in recent times when an update broke Nextcloud. Other than that, nextcloud has a brute-force plugin and you could consider overall hardening the entry points of the machine hosting Nextcloud (e.g ssh).

None. I don’t make a habit of keeping “misbehaving” apps around. If I can’t get to the bottom of a specific issue that app is getting the boot from my stable.

Most modern devices should support x265 playback which has the compression sizes you are looking for.

In addition to setting the cap to file sizes for media, you can also blacklist tags like REMUX etc.

This is an example of a custom format for hevc/x265 files that are no larger than 6Gigs. You just need to create a new custom quality profile and give below custom format a positive/higher score.

{
  "name": "Minima",
  "includeCustomFormatWhenRenaming": false,
  "specifications": [
    {
      "name": "No mo than 6 Gigs",
      "implementation": "SizeSpecification",
      "negate": false,
      "required": true,
      "fields": {
        "min": 0,
        "max": 6
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "1080p",
      "implementation": "ResolutionSpecification",
      "negate": false,
      "required": true,
      "fields": {
        "value": 1080
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "eng",
      "implementation": "LanguageSpecification",
      "negate": false,
      "required": false,
      "fields": {
        "value": 1
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Preferred x265",
      "implementation": "ReleaseTitleSpecification",
      "negate": false,
      "required": false,
      "fields": {
        "value": "[xh][ ._-]?265|\\\\bHEVC(\\\\b|\\\\d)"
      }
    }
  ]
}

I can help you with anything you want to self-host apart from email. Send me an inbox with a list of the softwares and how your setup looks like.

Glances should be right up your alley.

Whatever you do, make sure you setup firewall properly and enable automatic updates for your software. People say this last part is bad advice, but I’d rather have software break from an update than get ransomware’d.

Any reputable VPS will have clean IPs as they usually have strict TOS for customers abusing their network. Choose whichever fits your needs.

I use whatever this guy recommends to use.

Docker because it just works. Podman has another 5 years (hopefully) to get this part right IMO.

Tried switching some time back, didn’t take long to go back to docker. Podman does not have the polish that docker has taken years to perfect and as much as I love systemd, managing containers in docker is 10x better.

Not doing that. Would literally give up on YouTube if they blocked all the frontends.

I run a private invidious instance, it’s been bliss amidst all the adblock threats from YouTube. Hope it never stops working, I would quit on YouTube for good if it did.

You can control that with this env variable MICROBIN_NO_FILE_UPLOAD

Checkout the docs for other options.

This guy self hosts!

P.S Microbin added some few private paste options including adding password.