I notice that both examples are of someone using personal time to do work and not the other way around.

I had no idea you could do that! Excellent tip, thank you

Slightly off topic, but did something happen to freetube, or is this YouTube making a change and breaking things?

Isn’t this the same limitation of any federated platform? If you communicate with someone from a different instance your data will be replicated on their instance

There’s also valetudo to make sure it never calls home

None at all. They’ve been very reliable for the years when I’ve used them, but they’re no longer the cheapest kids on the block. I’m just wondering if I can do better now that there is more competition.

I do have a home server, but some services I want to have external, so a vps makes sense.

I’ve looked at ionos, but the reviews seem mixed. I’ve seen people complaining that their account got blocked and they demanded proof of ID before unlocking. Might be isolated cases, though, so thats why I’m looking for recommendations

Even calyx with a 6 month gap in updates is better than that