Everyone else mentioned most of what I would suggest.

One is missing for your original problem. Localsend. Think airdrop but cross platform. Super useful if you have a mix of devices (iOS, android, windows, etc…)

Haha yes. Well perhaps stock up before the ban goes into effect?

I second mikrotik. I was an OpenWRT guy and still have some access points using OpenWRT but mikrotik routers are just so slick and easy to use and maintain. I would recommend also

I used to keep a backed up base image to reflash a corrupted sd card. But after the 3rd or 4th time i knew i had to find a better solution.

I eventually moved to docker on the pi. But the pi would randomly go down. I had two of them for redundancy but eventually one of them ended up corrupting its sd card and shortly later the other went down unexpectedly while i was at work and the whole family lost connection without knowing how to fix it.

Decided to move to to dns blocking on the router. Basically its easy to reboot for the family and has yet to fail (more than a year now).

I like it but just not on a Pi. I found it too unstable. I found it easier to host in a docker container.

Although these days i just use blocklists on my router.

Also i dont believe its open source as requested. Although openwrt can be flashed on some models

They are excellent

Plex is good but another option is jellyfin

The lack of ios app deterred me from even testing it. I play tech support for my family enough to know an app would be necessary.

Man ive been looking for something like this for a long time and never found a suitable option.

Post i had before about this same topic.

Humhub wasnt a solution for me since most of my family uses iPhones and not having a dedicated app would confuse them.

Org roam could work if you’re your cool with emacs. Create files on the fly that are named with the date/topic and it could be setup to allow timestamps since you mentioned that. Notes can be linked to each other or easily merge or split as it develops.

Also org roam comes coupled with a daily diary that attaches to emacs calendar system.

Sorry about the multiple replies with the same content. My client app apparently decided to have a problem.

I found dealing with a mastodon server to be a pain in the ass. For a time I outsourced that to Masto.host and it was smooth. The owner of that site was really helpful and knew mastodon well

You are correct. Matrix is the only one that has an option to use e2ee. Rocket chat has it it beta but that may take some time to roll out.

I’ve recently been testing Mattermost for a family communication platform. I also tried matrix/element and Rocket.Chat. I’m leaning towards Mattermost since the mobile apps (essential for my family) feels the most intuitive.

Element required knowing what features existed and then finding them which isn’t going to work for grandma.

Rocket.chat was good too just leaned towards Mattermost for some reason.

I really wish matrix had a well polished iOS app. The best I found was FluffyChat but even then it felt…not right.