TLDR: The r/selfhosted subreddit has a Discord server. The owner’s account got hacked leaving the server in a precarious state. They submitted a support ticket, but Discord has not taken action in weeks and probably won’t at all, so they are considering starting a new Discord server.
Here is some advice then: Don’t run a public service until you understand the risks and are capable of protecting yourself and your users. It isn’t as simple as booting up a service for self use. By using Discord they minimised damages to users it would be worse if they lost control of Discord alternative with RCE exploits.
Users probably wouldn’t be too damaged if an IRC server with a few public channels got hacked. I realize IRC isn’t a true Discord alternative (and I realize that’s what you were picturing when you commented- I’m not debating your point). I just can’t imagine why a self hosting subreddit would need more than text chat + help bot.
Without having gone on that discord, like most discords, it would be my guess that 80% of the purpose of it is for shitposting, custom emojis, and sharing gifs.
Ironically few if any self hosted chat platforms share that focus, so that’s likely part of the gap. It’s either irc (very light on features, no ui for administration/customization for those not wanting to use admin text commands), matrix (very heavy, focus on federation, also has many commands that are only through text, very light support for custom emoji or built in gifs), or the crippleware open source business oriented chat platforms like rocketchat, mattermost, or zulip.
Honestly zulip is probably best but then you get into the wonderful world of mobile push notifications, capped at 10 users or unlimited for “eligible communities” there
Fluxer recently added self hosting and it has a mobile app in beta and soon to be released, admin from a web GUI, not difficult to host, and has a good amount of discord features. It is somewhat heavy though.
You just make a few channels on existing IRC servers don’t need to host anything. I mean if you know what you are doing go for it but unless you actually do, don’t put servers on the internet for trawlers to take over.
A fediverse IRC server network sounds pretty cool tbh. #bringbackirc
E: Oooo a middle ground: https://thelounge.chat/ Self Hosted IRC WebClient