You can just buy a domain and start a forum...
Back in the day that's what we did, even after Facebook showed up, because it took a couple years to match the functionality.
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Mattermost seems to be what you're looking for, it's built around threads.
Discord seems to be the obvious alternative although i hate it.
Does discord have threaded conversation? Isn't it just messages in channels?
Discord can make threads, but they are effectively invisible to people who don't post in them or get @ in them. They can be set to auto archive and have their own permission structure, so I tend to create them for individual games and sub topics like that.
The discoverability problem means people have to seek them out, which might suit your purposes, but just expect it to be like a somewhat self archiving channel anyone can start.
it does. and with a community server (which can still be made invite-only), you can even make "forum" channels.
Matrix via Element and Mattermost are the best options I know off.
Nice thing with Matrix is can use the same account across multiple servers
Is matrix not more like chat channels? I'm lookint for something more like a forum / threaded conversations. Do you think it supports that sort of thing?
Sorry I think I misunderstood. Matrix has chat threads but not like Lemmy style posts.
You do Lemmy but block all federation too.
Seconding Matrix, if you like the idea of chat rather than forum post format. You can also use the account in the Matrix network at large, quite a few techy hobby groups there, and of course one-to-one chat.
You could spin up a wiki and use the Discussion tab for that. Not ideal, but shouldn't be too hard to set up on fandom.wiki, for instance - should be simple to block edits by non-registered users. YouNeedAWiki or Miraheze should also work
I set up a Discourse message board recently and it’s pretty easy and cheap.
emails? or local phpbb?
Phpbb is the tried and true retro solution.
My high school friends groop stood one up on a free domain for our lunchtime politics discussion group.
For years I had been using a private blog with friends. It was easy to comment on anyone's post, and easy for anyone of us to create a new post ;)