Self-hosted forums already exist (like Discourse), but adoption has been low. I fully support self-hosted forums, but I think they'll never achieve mainstream without a hosted option.
The two aren't mutually exclusive. It is a common monetization strategy for open source projects to offer a paid hosted option in addition to free self-hosting. For example, you can self-host Matrix (synapse, dendrite, and conduit) but you can also pay the creators of Matrix to host it for you[1].
> The lack of a unified backend makes it much harder to build native mobile apps.
That response comes across as disingenuous. The lack of a unified backend makes a lot of monetisation models hard, but should pose zero problems for native mobile apps. Point at an API and done.
I am also interested in self-hosting, I really dig the design and interface but not being able to self-host is a no-go for me. Discourse is just terrible overall and the only other real alternative is xenforo which is extremely pricy.
I'm absolutely open to supporting self-hosting under some kind of enterprise license, similar to Github. If this is something you're interested in, shoot me an email and we can try it out.
I would be interested in a self-hosted version as well; though have additional questions about administrative items. A return to forums and not a 'feed of high engagement' is sorely needed I think. Unfortunately, so are moderator tools and certain things of a web application that people have come to expect.
Adoption is low because Discourse just sucks. I just looked up something on the Docker Discourse - it took 8 seconds to load and made 80 requests. I just avoid websites that use Discourse. PhpBB sites loaded faster on my 256Kb/s back in 2006.
Contrast is also low and it's just bad to read. Too many UX people touched it.
