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What do you get when you mix corporate abuses of data, a shift from ownership to renting of software, and dozens of high-profile security breaches? You get a healthy distrust of putting your data on someone else’s computer (also known as “the cloud”). You also get Data Hoarder, a community dedicated to the practice of storing your data on machines that you control. Free from monthly subscriptions and free from prying eyes.

Even if you aren’t a self-hoster, there are a lot of things you can learn from this community. Do you own a PC? Saving money on new storage is a constant topic of discussion. For example, did you know that you can often find great deals on 3.5” hard drives by buying external enclosures with the drive already included? Manufacturers will often put very high quality drives in these enclosures because that’s the model they have the most unsold units of. When you buy the external enclosure, it can cost much less than buying the drive you find inside on its own. Buying the enclosure to take the drive out is called “shucking,” and it can save you a lot of money. (But watch out. It’s a lottery — you might get a different model of drive than you expect.)

If some of these topics sound interesting to you, give Data Hoarder a subscribe and hang out for a while.

Until next time!