Do you know alot about something, even if a very specific thing? want to contribute and earn $$ ?

InceptionHosting

Hi Folks,

I am looking for people who know what they know and know it well, primarily in the following broad categories:

• Coding
• Scripting
• VPN
• Proxy
• Service config e.g. DNS, mail, snmp, httpd.
• Database
• Public or private services e.g. casting (audio/video), game servers etc.

Just a limited list but you get the overall idea hopefully.

I am looking to start a series of guest posts hopefully by the end of this year depending on costs called 'Getting Started' or 'First Steps'

The idea behind it is that many of us are great at something even if that is a very specific part of a broader scope, many of us, myself included would love to get started with something new but sometimes the hundreds of conflicting semi-anonymous, aged guides take little in to consideration and have very little interaction or maintenance.

It would be great to do a tutorial or series of tutorials on your first steps to learning XYZ whereby someone can come to it from a standpoint of only knowing how to log in and install some packages to really getting on the first rung of the ladder with something.

If you feel you have something to share please get in touch with your idea and what you would like to charge for writing it, I expect that you will also be available to check the post periodically on the main site to answer any queries or questions (within reason) and provide at least some minimal level of support/aftercare for a short period after being published.

Additionally based on popularity you should ideally be prepared to do a follow up/ next level post to slightly advance things, obviously, this requirement will be based on the level of engagement the initial article generates.

Don't feel that it needs to be a book either, even just practical tips would be great, for example, some people are grep/awk/sed ninjas, some practical examples of output/file/dataset manipulation would be perfectly valid and usually short and sweet.

This offer, for now, is open-ended without expiry, I am not setting a rate as everyone is in a different socioeconomic bracket all around the world so I would like you to contact me with your own rates.

Free is also fine if you just want something posted but don't want any money however I would still ask you to stick to the terms of being available for follow up and possible continuance.

Resources will be provided to assist with formatting your articles, essentially either private access to the blog platform or a hidden subsection of the forum so you can work on it without it being public and see what it will look like in real-time.

Depending on the popularity of this I won't be able to guarantee dates of posting, the order of things will also be decided based on predicted popularity over cost.

If you are reading this and have nothing to contribs but would love to learn something specific or learn something to a higher standard or just get started with something then please say what that is below it may help inform decisions and encourage others that do know that thing to come forward.

Cheers.

Ant.

AaronSS

How about building a PiHole network that uses dynamic DNS updates to only allow friends/family to connect? =P

I could write that if anyone is interested. Right now it works on batch script that updates the firewall rules, but I am moving it to python. It only works with Ubuntu right now, but I could add additional distros if needed.

Not_Oles

@AnthonySmith said: first steps to learning XYZ whereby someone can come to it from a standpoint of only knowing how to log in and install some packages to really getting on the first rung of the ladder with something

There is so much wonderful howto stuff on the internet. But, never enough! I am so grateful to the many people whose howto posts have been so helpful to me. The tiny bit that I am doing here is but a way of paying back and paying forward. Thanks to @AnthonySmith for providing the platform which I can use to make small payments! Best wishes to everyone who reads and learns here!

AaronSS

I want @SmallWeb to do a getting started with DirectAdmin, showing us how to get a server setup

MichaelCee

@aaronstuder said:
I want @SmallWeb to do a getting started with DirectAdmin, showing us how to get a server setup

Any key points, or just in general?

I'm happy to write that for my own amusement either way and if Anthony likes it I'm cool with that.

comi

I messed up my online footprint in the past, meaning anyone who knows my real name can google things that I don't want to share.

I would very much read a modern guide on how to manage your online identity and I believe it would be interesting/useful to a lot of people.

InceptionHosting

All ideas are valid, I won't publicly pick any but its great if people discuss them here so I can get a feel for what others think, that is really helpful.

If you do want to do something please PM me an overview and a rate.

Just to further clarify because I think I did a bad job in the initial post, the idea is to give someone that first step, that is all it often takes to get someone moving down a really productive path.

When people don't even know what they don't know the first step to getting to a meaningful level or self-propelling level of knowledge can seem like climbing a mountain and can put people off even trying or getting started.

Additional to that are the chunks of info that can bewilder people who already have a fair level of knowledge, for example when cPanel decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater with their pricing hike one of the REALLY common barriers for people to move to DA was the fact that DA has no highly automated and integrated external nameserver/cluster solution.

Some further examples off the top of my head:

• How to run a script to grab info from a set of log files based on conditions and trigger an email alert of XYZ is found.
• People may want to know how to use rrdtool to graph data from a server.
• How to get a basic PHP based page up that does nothing but registration and login or a form that writes to a database.
• Stream or restream an audio or video source.
• Run your own rust server.
• Setup a basic MySQL cluster.
• Synchronise 2 directories on 2 servers
• Get started with perl from hello world to a simple light weight monitoring script.
• Install ruby on rails and deploy the admin panel gem
• Get started with running a plex server.
• Functional getting started with html+css examples.
• Basic WHMCS/Blesta hooks.
• How to create OpenVZ 7 and or KVM templates.
• How to backup and restore a mysql database.
• How to read and display information from a database on a web page.
• An introduction to RESTful API from what is an API to a single function.
• Simple load balancing.
• High availability does not need to be expensive.
• Running your own mail server - a checklist and working examples.
• What is all this fpm nonsense?
• Functional .htaccess examples
• Content caching options and getting started.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas, that is just a list out of my head either things I would benefit from myself or have had to learn in the past, feel free to add your own lists.

hostsailor

It is great idea!
Where should we publish our ideas and contents? @AnthonySmith

comi

@AnthonySmith said: the idea is to give someone that first step

Well if you would be looking for some "second step" material, I have an idea of a post about "complexity" in relation to computers and deployments, what's that minimalism movement, when it's useful, when it's "too much" and becomes overcomplicated instead and such...

This isn't a "first step" - not how to do it, but "okey, I know how to basic, what do I do now?"

I realise this is more philosophy than practical KB, so understand if that's not quite desirable.

Ympker

Once exams are over (think August-ish) I might write a (LTD) VPN provider roundup

There's some things I'd like to update or say about changes that have been taking place in regard to my last review/post regarding this.

InceptionHosting

@hostsailor said:
It is great idea!
Where should we publish our ideas and contents? @AnthonySmith

See:

@AnthonySmith said: All ideas are valid, I won't publicly pick any but its great if people discuss them here so I can get a feel for what others think, that is really helpful.

If you do want to do something please PM me an overview and a rate.

hostsailor

@AnthonySmith said:

@hostsailor said:
It is great idea!
Where should we publish our ideas and contents? @AnthonySmith

See:

@AnthonySmith said: All ideas are valid, I won't publicly pick any but its great if people discuss them here so I can get a feel for what others think, that is really helpful.

If you do want to do something please PM me an overview and a rate.

My pleasure,
Thank you very much @AnthonySmith

PHP_Backend

Only if I knew what I am good in.

InceptionHosting

@PHP_Backend said:
Only if I knew what I am good in.

Node backends?

PHP_Backend

@AnthonySmith said:
Node backends?

A boy can only dream. All those shiny (promised) async paychecks.

wdmg

If you’d like anything written about high-scale packet processing, ddos mitigation and filtering >500Gbps and 50M+ requests per second, our team’s happy to contribute. Feel free to send me a message about it.

seriesn

As of today, I am still searching for the answer to the question: What is kvm?

mikho

@seriesn said:
As of today, I am still searching for the answer to the question: What is kvm?

I’m biased but I think I did a better job in 2013 with this one. https://lowendguide.com/1/using-linux/quickinfo-difference-between-openvz-and-kvm/

InceptionHosting

@seriesn said: What is kvm?

Xen for OpenVZ lovers.

flips

I'd love an article on Docker

• some pros/cons
• when to use/not to use
• how to secure it (should I add something to it's firewall rules?)
• etc ...

InceptionHosting

@flips said:
I'd love an article on Docker

• some pros/cons
• when to use/not to use
• how to secure it (should I add something to it's firewall rules?)
• etc ...

great idea.

Iroshan464

I would love to see an article comparing VPN protocols like openvpn, wireguard, and ikev2.
In terms of privacy, performance, and usability, what is optimal in specific situations, etc.
I know there are quite a few, but none of them are comprehensive.

Unixfy

I could help out with more enterprisey stuff like Atlassian's software, AWS, and self-hosted Active Directory. Though, I'm not sure how big the audience for that would be, especially at a low-end forum

InceptionHosting

@Unixfy said:
I could help out with more enterprisey stuff like Atlassian's software, AWS, and self-hosted Active Directory. Though, I'm not sure how big the audience for that would be, especially at a low-end forum

Getting started can often be a barrier, having someone write a hand holding guide that gets from nothing to something is often all it takes to remove the barrier to entry so it sounds like a good idea to me.

You are here after all low end forum does not mean low end people

Mr_Tom

Been considering doing some writing, so might be able to put something together. The mail server idea sounds interesting. I have ran my own for a number of years.

PHP_Backend

@Mr_Tom said:
The mail server idea sounds interesting. I have ran my own for a number of years.

I will very much appreciate if you write something on it.

serv_ee

@comi said:
I messed up my online footprint in the past, meaning anyone who knows my real name can google things that I don't want to share.

I would very much read a modern guide on how to manage your online identity and I believe it would be interesting/useful to a lot of people.

I'd love to see one as well.

While there's only very little about me online (and Google deleted the rest as of late on my right to be forgotten request) it would be still good to know for future.

InceptionHosting

Well lots of wants, sadly only 1 real offer to write so far, I guess I will have to start looking further afield for the writing, seems you can't even give money away in the lowendworld

Mr_Tom

@AnthonySmith said: Well lots of wants, sadly only 1 real offer to write so far

Sorry Ant, meant to add, I'm happy to do something on setting up a personal mail server or similar type thing. I'll drop you a PM later on

vyas

I have a list of 7 or 8 topics I can propose - but would love to learn from others (not everytime- @Not_Oles article on Proxmox was good but for me was a bouncer !)
Having said that, around end of each month I can spin out a draft, if it does the trick.

bikegremlin

Suggestion:
Make categories in the Blog section.
Articles will add up over the years, so diving them into categories (and adding a search option) would be helpful.