I agree to see a lot of spam, insults, I agree that the installation can be difficult, and the number of users is small. I just want complete freedom of speech like in the good old unmoderated IRC and no upvotes/downvotes.
Have your own website. When you're speaking in "someone else's house", no matter who that someone else is, you're going to be subject to the restrictions they impose. And they're going to have restrictions.
As an experiment one can stand up a self hosted forum, IRCD, voice chat <i>(Murmur / uMurmur)</i> but I would use a throw-away domain, throw away registrar, optionally a cheap CDN or a self built mini-CDN <i>haproxy on many different VM's on several VPS providers with throw-away accounts</i>.<p>To get and keep peoples interest it would have to be truly unbiased, moderate only illegal content, shadowban only true spam. Expect agent provocateurs to tirelessly try to shut it down. If one permits user-generated multimedia content it will last less than a few months unless one has a delayed submission approval system that gives moderators a chance to whack illegal content as the submission of illegal content will be automated, auto-screenshotted, auto-submitted to the registrars and VPS or CDN providers. If it is text only one would still need moderators that <i>follow-the-sun</i> so there are always people watching. There will always be people trying to link to illegal websites. The links leave referrers in the illicit site logs and the authorities will harass one for running a site that links to illegal sites.<p>My experiences beyond the above:<p>- In the past I have stood up unmoderated IRCD's on public IP space and Tor. There was little to no interest. The vast majority of people will not use Tor or Freenet. The solution has to be single-click happy-clicky. People prefer Discord. I have no idea if this will change at some point after Discord IPO's <i>coming very soon</i>.<p>- I have stood up mostly-unmoderated forums <i>as described above using ACL's, ranks to handle delays for moderators to watch for illicit content</i>. <i>This is not much different than what HN does algorithmically.</i> This can work but it requires a really good group of moderators to watch for illegal content. There are a myriad of agent provocateurs that will absolutely show up once the site is event remotely popular. Each group have their own agenda and incentives for shutting down the site, it's not worth trying to figure that part out. Mitigation will add enough friction to make the site less popular and people will just go back to Discord and their little groups in the big social media platforms.<p>What one will end up with:<p>- One would shut down their sites <i>(that was me)</i>, or<p>- One would end up with a restricted semi-private echo chamber <i>(I've done this too)</i>, or<p>- One would end up with a site run just like this one.<p>I have my own theories as to why the small independent sites are shut down with such zealotry and fervor. This was less of a problem in the early internet as it was mostly <i>technical and less than political</i> people. Now the internet has reached critical mass of inclusion with minimal friction and there are groups that wish to control narratives of the masses. They do not have enough agent provocateurs to control every little forum, or I should say <i>"did not, hello AI..."</i> so they just shut it all down. Once the zealots feel they can infiltrate all the little forums using AI there may be a resurgence <i>or the appearance of one</i> and the narratives will be manipulated by AI.<p>That was a long winded way of saying, <i>"Try it out."</i><p>[Edit] Oh yeah, also pay for all this setup using a throw-away bank. Deposit cash into that bank. Keep it isolated from other sources of funding. Have your other sources in multiple different anonymous trusts. Your throw away bank accounts should be in the name of a company. I can not suggest where to register the company. Retain multiple lawyers. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal or business advice.