I have spent a good bit of time thinking here too, on two primary parts. First, in my mind the difference between reddit, FB, twitter, HN, forums, etc is reall

I have spent a good bit of time thinking here too, on two primary parts. First, in my mind the difference between reddit, FB, twitter, HN, forums, etc is really just configuration. Abstracting just a tad bit higher, you can include Slack and other realtime options. I just want a curated gRPC API that implements it with pluggable auth and let others figure out discoverability and network (not activity api and not with an already built network, just persistence and auth). End to end encryption is important IMO too (even for large groups) so the host can have plausible deniability. Second, you have to solve for hosting/network in distributed fashion without over-complicating server democratization and discoverability/naming like p2p often does. I see 2 options: 1) self hosted on at-home workstation using Tor onion service (get NAT busting for free) knowing you need an offline friendly implementation or 2) one-click easy reselling of cloud instances and domains from inside the app (this also provides a funding model). I know of many p2p options for solving these problems, but I think we dont need to complicate at that level. As for the quality of the communities themselves, a self-hosted megaphone instead of perverse share/like broadcast incentives of companies today will automatically improve discourse (at a potential cost of creating echo chambers).