Folks: I've seen the recent news about
#Discord . I don't know what your use case is for it; I never adopted it because it read to me as "fancy chat room" and I didn't have need for that.
What I did do a few years back is stand up a general-use
#phpBB #forum on my company's server, mostly in reaction to being cooped up from the pandemic. It's no longer active, but I could activate it again. And yes, I got the "ancient tech" jokes - a lot - however...
If you are in need of a (mostly) private alternative to Discord which is on my server, which is not based in the U.S. and does have live chat capability (through an extension) if needed, then I will stand it back up for that use.
If I get at least six users who are willing to promise to post at least two posts per week, then I'll drag my forums out of the mothballs and offer it as a separate, real-person-hosted alternative.
If there are other means of offering an alternative (Matrix, et. al.) I could look into standing one of those up instead. Just saying that the forum is essentially ready to go.
EDITED TO ADD: Please feel free to boost this on - but do not do so after 25 February 2026. If you are interested, please indicate so in the replies.