I have self hosted for years using Authentik and have 50 + services. Postiz has been one of the most challenging to spin up and maintain. The documentation is not up to date, the software is constantly changing and I had to tweak lots to get it to work. Even now, it seems to crash after a few days and haven’t had the chance to investigate. All these posts I set up didn’t go through and now if I turn it back on, it’ll release them all in one go before I can get in to stop it, or have to revert to a fresh install…

The vast majority of services and not like this so don’t get disheartened! Try some other ones first them come back to this when more experienced. I recommend Bento PDF, ConvertX, outline wiki, vikunja and immich (if you have the storage space).

At first, try to stick to software on Authentik’s guides (https://integrations.goauthentik.io/). Once you do a few OIDC and forward proxy services you’ll get the hang of it.

When I get a chance I’ll share my docker compose SSO settings and authentik redirect uri that worked for me with the caveat that the software crashes for some reason.

We’re all fine with piracy because of enshittification and the spread of shows/films across too many services. Happily paid for Netflix when it was good but it slowly got worse and worse. If there was one fairly priced single (maybe max across 3) source(s), I’d switch back.

In terms of stream vs arr’s. Quality of video and sound matters to us but not for everything we watch. I actually use Stremio with Debrid for most items, especially my family choosing what to watch. When I want top quality I will use my arr stack. When stremio fails I’ll use my arr stack. For TV shows we watch regularly we use the arr stack, partly to remind us when they’re released. For TV shows we regularly re-watch I use the arr stack.

GDS is one area the government has done really well.

I can’t seem to login to the root user on two different mariadb databases to make those changes so must be doing something wrong

Others here have covered great points, especially that it is a physical loudness and presence.

I would add that everyone tends to be very knowledgeable about US culture, history, geography, politics etc from TV, films and news but with the “typical Americans” you are talking about, they know almost nothing about other countries or cultures. They might know very high level things like what Buckingham Palace is where the King lives but not much beyond that. The worst of the stereotype just don’t care and don’t show an interest in learning anything. It’s almost like a tick box to see certain things and then that’s their holiday done.

Slow an interest and curiosity and you’ll be fine. Look at what the locals are doing and try to copy them. If you go to London, everyone will stand on the right on escalators. Anybody with eyes can see that! Yet you’ll find so many people don’t look or care so get in the way.

Also, all countries have stereotypes that apply to most people but not everyone - the British are horrible binge drinkers who go for cheap beers in the sun. Im not like that but can certainly agree with the sentiment after seeing Brits abroad! Just sitting back and noticing goes a long way.

Shopping and service culture is very different. Most retail staff don’t have to welcome everyone, make small talk, fake an interest or have to stand up all day at a checkout to not be lazy. Restaurant staff often seem “rude” compared to America but in reality they’re just trying to do their job and we don’t always want the American style customer service. I’ll ask if I need help!

Check out Romm. Not every romm can be streamed but think it meets your needs.

What difficulties are you finding with it and are you switching from Google? The results are as custom as Google given they haven’t scraped your life history so wondering if that’s it? I’ve been using DDG without any issues. About once every 6 months I struggle to find something so try the Google bang but have never found better results. In fact, I was shocked last time how crap the Google results were, just full of AI generated crap and SEO based crap.

To be honest, DDG is also struggling with that now as it’s based on Bing. I have been trying a public searxg but not found it very good so far.