I installed a Matrix homeserver (private, separate and non-federating) for our family at the start of the covid lockdowns, and we've been happily using it ever since.
"Recommending" anything is pretty much worthless. Stand them in front of a done thing that is already set up, that's worth a hundred times more.
How much effort took that process and how many people are using it?
I would like to do the same, but with the possibility of scaling it up a bit.
Meamwhile the Wikimedia foundation are still stuck on a fragmented mishmash of IRC for the old guard, and Discord or Telegram for the younger crowd who quite literally would rather not engage then forgo GIFs.
You'd think they could dig into their hundreds of millions of donated dollars they don't even need and help Matrix and themselves but apparently not.