I think of myself as technically inclined. I have installed Linux multiple times and have basic command line knowledge, and I’ve programmed in many languages, with the most experience making a static website game using HTML/CSS/JS.
Additionally, I own the superspruce.org domain (my registrar is Dynadot), but I don’t really know how to wield the power of owning a domain. I also have some spare computers to be used for hosting, a 2009 laptop running Lubuntu and a 3900X+32GB RAM desktop other running KDE Neon, but I’m also open to experimenting with cloud hosting too (I know, sacrilege here).
However, I don’t know much about the TCP/IP protocol or other networking protocols. I’m happy to learn, but the curve would need to start gently.
I would want to try hosting my websites, and also a personal non-federated Lemmy instance to serve as a archivable forum for my games. Even if it’s not very useful, it’s great experience.
Seems people are already making great recommentations.
Personally I also use docker-compose, a WireGuard VPN and an Nginx-Server to proxy/ssl-terminate all my services to my VPN or the Internet.
Just host whatever you like/need. Something like Nextcloud is probably a solid start.
Btw, I have not seen it mentioned here, but awesome-Lists are a thing on github where people collect various gems for certain categories. Here is the one for self-hosting which I have used extensively and really like: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted
Also, when you start hosting more than 2-3 services, keeping them up-to-date might become a hassle which you can forget. For docker-based hosting I’d recommend you setup watchtower, which can keep your servives up-to-date for you.