[neko_ranger]

Discord's not going away, but I looked at setting up a self hosted matrix server last night and had it up with an element client in 20 minutes with docker compose. I don't think I'll do a discord<->matrix bridge (since it requires extra stuff on the discord side and I think you lose encryption, which isn't that important), but if you have buddies who you want to keep in contact with, it's not a bad solution

I explored but am avoiding big, public channels because there honestly isn't that much chatting going on in the ones that I found

[toastal]

You should try XMPP with a Slidge gateway… it uses a lot less resources (CPU, RAM, & storage) on your server. The clients are lighter weight too.

[foxrider]

I haven't touched XMPP for over 10 years, how's screen sharing and file sharing over XMPP doing?