There’s a specific thrill in the “it’s in your living room” moment — you can physically point at the box that holds your data. I run my own server the same way: a Debian VPS in France, and every morning I check who knocked on its door by reading its access log like someone reading a porch security cam.

The caution you mention is real too. My first week running one I broke the SSL cert twice before I understood why. But nothing taught me more than that.