Totally understand your concern, and you’re right, the assumption of cloud as a default can be frustrating in many ways.

That said, this framing partly reflects the state of the academic literature: in the past 10–15 years, cloud adoption (especially SaaS) has been extensively studied, to the point where it often feels “default” in research too. In contrast, self-hosting has been far less explored, which is exactly why we’re doing this study—to help fill that gap and highlight its relevance, especially in academic contexts.

Thanks again for your thoughts and for the good wishes! :)

Thank you for your comment. The use of similar statements is a common practice in survey research, as it helps to capture various dimensions of a construct more reliably and provides a clearer understanding of individual perspectives.

Regarding your concern, the purpose of this study is not to ask anyone to justify or defend their choices, whether it’s about using third-party services or self-hosting. Instead, we aim to identify the factors that influence such decisions, from a scientific standpoint, to better understand the motivations behind them. The goal is not to judge whether one choice is better than another, but to gain insights into the different considerations that shape people’s decisions when it comes to managing their data and services. Thank you again for taking the time to complete the survey.

Thanks, much appreciated!

Thank you for your comment. The use of similar statements is a common practice in this type of research, as it helps to better capture different aspects of a construct and ensures reliability. I understand that privacy may not be your personal motivation for self-hosting, and that’s perfectly fine. The purpose of this survey is to explore a variety of factors that can influence why individuals choose to self-host, and to determine the relative importance of each. Even if certain factors don’t apply to you, your responses contribute to a broader understanding of the motivations behind self-hosting. Thank you again for taking the time to complete the survey.

Thank you so much, really appreciate it!

Thank you very much – I really appreciate your participation! Yes, the results will be published as part of my PhD dissertation, and also in one of the peer-reviewed journals in the field of Computer Science. Once everything is finalized and publicly available, I’ll definitely share a summary and a link to the publication here as well. Thanks again for your interest and support!

Thank you for completing the survey! Glad it helped you discover new self-hosted software to try! :)

Thanks so much – really appreciate it! :)

Thank you for your feedback and for completing the survey. The first part of the survey primarily focuses on Software as a Service (SaaS). We appreciate your input and will consider ways to clarify this in future surveys.

Thank you for your honest feedback and for completing the survey. We understand that some questions may have felt redundant or repetitive, but this design is intended to ensure the reliability and accuracy of measuring the same concepts from different perspectives.

Thanks a lot, really appreciate it!

Thank you for your comment and for completing the survey. It is common practice in research to group together statements that measure the same construct. This arrangement makes it easier for respondents to follow and compare answers on related topics, which contributes to more reliable measurement by helping maintain focus on the subject matter.

Thank you for completing the survey and for your thoughtful feedback. The similarity between some questions is intentional and follows common scientific practice when measuring complex or abstract concepts. Using multiple, slightly varied items that target the same construct increases the reliability and validity of the data by capturing subtle nuances and reducing the influence of random response variation. While your suggestion to show only a subset of such items through adaptive platforms is valid and worth exploring, fixed item sets are generally preferred in research settings to ensure consistent and robust measurement. We appreciate your input and will consider it in future survey design improvements.

Thank you for participating in the survey and for providing your feedback.

We are aware that some of the statements may appear similar or closely related. This is an intentional aspect of the survey design, aimed at capturing different dimensions of the same underlying construct or thematic area. In scientific research, it is a well-established and widely used practice to include multiple, conceptually related items when measuring a specific concept.

Thanks a lot, really appreciate it! :)

Thank you so much, really appreciate it! :)

Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback!

You’ve raised an important point: cloud service providers are not all the same, and their business models can significantly influence how much trust users place in them. We fully agree that there’s a big difference between providers like Backblaze, whose value proposition is built on privacy and reliability, and companies like Google, where monetization often relies on extensive data collection.

The purpose of this section in the survey is to explore general perceptions and motivations behind, not to evaluate individual providers. However, we understand that this generalization can be limiting — especially for respondents who distinguish clearly between different types of services and trust models. Your situation, where you answered “Neither agree nor disagree” not out of indecision but due to the complexity of the issue, is very insightful.

Thanks again for taking the time to share this, it’s greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your feedback!

We understand that the question about education levels may have been confusing, especially when trying to map the German school system to the categories provided.

The answer options in our survey are based on ISCED 2011 – the International Standard Classification of Education, developed by UNESCO. This is a globally recognized framework used to ensure that education levels can be compared across countries, despite differences in national education systems.

To help clarify, here is how the German terms you mentioned generally correspond to ISCED categories:

• Grundschule → Primary Education
• Hauptschule / Realschule → Lower Secondary Education
• Gymnasium (until Abitur) → Upper Secondary Education
• Studium (university studies) → depending on the degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent tertiary education level / Master’s degree or equivalent tertiary education level Doctoral degree or equivalent tertiary education level)

Thanks, really appreciate it!

Thanks a lot for your input and kind wishes, really appreciate it!