As 2024 comes to an end, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve built together during the first full year of life for BSD Cafe. Launched on 20 July 2023, this project has grown far beyond what I could have imagined. While I haven’t tracked full uptime data, I can confidently say that the downtime was less than 30 minutes overall - even though the main VM hosting our services moved multiple times (including a switch from a Proxmox hypervisor to bhyve on FreeBSD, for the sake of alignment with our mission). In a world filled with over-engineered HA systems, we’ve outperformed many “big-name” cloud providers. Not bad for a community project, right?
For me, this has been an incredible journey. The users here are not just participants - they’re collaborators, and their positivity has been inspiring. The content shared and created at BSD Cafe has been valuable not only to the BSD community but beyond. What truly sets BSD Cafe apart is the openness for dialogue and exchange. Whether it’s social media posts, Matrix discussions, repositories in our brew, or RSS feeds, people seem to genuinely appreciate what we create and the conversations we foster.
BSD Cafe is a journey - one that grows, evolves, and continues. Our goal isn’t endless growth (we’re a community, not a business) but rather to maintain a welcoming, inclusive space where everyone feels a sense of positivity and belonging. For me, opening any service with “bsd.cafe” in the domain brings joy and pride. That’s the spirit I’ve tried to convey, and I hope it resonates with all of you, whether you’re active BSD Cafe users or friends of the community.
Promoting self-hosting and #OwnYourData has, as a side effect, inspired some users to “go solo” with their own setups. But even then, they remain part of BSD Cafe - in spirit, in purpose, and in connection.
Here’s a look at what we’ve achieved together this year:
mastodon.bsd.cafe: 370 total users
Active in the past month: 207
Active in the past six months: 286
snac.bsd.cafe: 14 total users
Active in the past month: 7
blendit.bsd.cafe: 61 registered users
matrix.bsd.cafe: 23 users
brew.bsd.cafe: 29 users - 80 repositories
freshrss.bsd.cafe: 25 users
miniflux.bsd.cafe: 11 users
press.bsd.cafe: 9 users
myip.bsd.cafe: Constantly used by various users
wiki.bsd.cafe: Could use a bit more love and content, but it fulfills its role as a functional homepage.
tube.bsd.cafe: Still in testing - Peertube 7.0 update is on the way.
For detailed stats from our reverse proxy and general router (excluding media services, which generate most traffic but are handled via caching reverse proxies), you can check here - updated hourly: https://netstats.bsd.cafe
The journey of BSD Cafe continues, and I look forward to seeing where 2025 will take us. Together, we’ve built something special - something driven by passion, shared purpose, and a little bit of the BSD magic that makes all of this possible.
Here’s to a new year full of joy, serenity, and connection. Thank you for being part of this adventure.
Wishing you all a fantastic 2025 - and THANK YOU!
Stefano
Dear @stefano@bsd.cafe if I remember well I created a Mastodon account on your instance at the beginning of your project #BSDCafe. I appreciated (and I am still loving it) your message and the goal of the project.
I want to thank you for all the things you are sharing with us about BSD and all open sources projects.
You are inspiring me and without any doubt, all tech people here and beyond 🫶🏻 :runbsd: :freebsd:
@stefano@bsd.cafe I have to thank you (as well as @gyptazy@gyptazy.com ) for bringing me here, when I joined I barely used mastodon as I was mainly on twitter, now I'm on mastodon >95% of the time.
Here there are no ads, no bots, no scams, just real people I enjoy interacting with.
I sincerely thank you for all the time, money and effort you have put into this.
@stefano@bsd.cafe Even though I am not hosting my social profile on bsd.cafe (im too afraid moving), I must admit that you have done an incredible work for the *BSD community. Your wisdom and experienced has helped me a lot in various situations. Without this source of motivation it would not be possible for me to extend my https://bsdbox.de articles and moving from TrueNAS to FreeBSD. Thank you!
@stefano@bsd.cafe thanks for all you provided us with: infrastructure, talks, stories, pictures and more … you built something great for us to reunite around the BSD flag. Sincerely wishing to you and your beloved ones a happy new year. Happy problem solving for 2025 !
@stefano@bsd.cafe Dear Stefano,
I would never have expected such a valuable place - especially about #BSD - in the fediverse like bsd.cafe.
Thanks for all your work and dedication.
You created in just a few months such a great - probably the best - #BSD related #Fediverse instance in the net! Congratulations for this and thank you for all the time, efforts and money you put into this! Keep up the great work, I definitely know how important your “baby” is to you and you’re caring great about it! Thank you!
@stefano@bsd.cafe thanks for wrangling all the software & hardware to keep the lights on, and for shepherding the community so that it's a pleasant place to hang out. May you and your loved ones have a joy-filled new year!