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.

I think you would be better off using something like org-roam. It’s all text so script can still be used and it can be searched fast with ripgrep. Also org mode has loads of features that a homegrown system will never be able to catch up with

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.

I tried this but the post are not private even when federation is disabled. The post are publicly visible if you find the URL.