Introduction

First of all, Happy New Year! I wish you had a great time with your family.

Today I'm happy to announce that I'm hosting a public instance of "DataBag". Databag is a tiny lightweight messaging chat that can be used to messaging. You can send video, files messages and there is also a end to end encryption option! The end to end encrypted options means that I can't see your message/files at all even if I wanted.

Why Databag?

While I like other projects like Matrix, they are much heavier and DataBag just seems unique for me. It is still being developed, so there is a bunch of improvements coming, but I'm really surprised that it already supports video and audio calls as well as end to end encryption. The fact that it is lightweight and already have Android/IOS apps is awesome too.

How do I access this "DataBag"?

It's quite simple. Just go to https://chat.theselfhosting.art and create your account. You can chat with friends and have call with them too. Feel free to explore it as well.

How long will you keep it?

For at least 1 year (01-01-2025). I paid the VPS in advance for 1 year and I'll use it with my friends. I wanted a alternative to NextCloud and this one seemed perfect for me. When it is mature enough, I believe it will be even more cool than Matrix. If I see more people using this DataBag instance or donating for that, I will surely keep it longer.

Is there a limit?

Yes, you can only upload up to 10GB per account and only 100 accounts can be created. It's a limit that I wanted to add due to the structure. DataBag uses SQLite for now. SQLite is really fast, but it is not as scalable as MySQL for example. I may adjust these limits as needed as well.