Friends, using any centralized "platform" or "service" is a bad idea. It's the antithesis of the P2P (peer to peer) architecture the internet was designed to deliver.
Please stop using reddit, .win, google, gdrive, cloudflare, free email services, and other platforms and services.
There is an alternative and it is the budding "fediverse." All the fediverse needs to succeed is people to start using it and participate in the projects by testing and giving use reports on what they use. That's how software gets better unless it is funded by mega corporations, and we know where that leads.
At least start! Find an XMPP server, an ActivityPup server (ex: Nextcloud, Mastodon) to use, or pay a nerd to build one for your community.
Decentralized is the only thing that can't be shut down in an internet outage.
End-to-end encryption (which is different from a service that has the word "Encrypted!" on its website) is the only way to keep messages private.
Start learning! If we don't improve out technical knowledge, we will be completely overrun - soon!
Agreed. CR, what do you think about .onion nodes for hosting from own laptop/router?
Also, it's good to publish IP addresses of servers in case of domain name problems. i2p is ideal though.
And ipfs for files you don't want to lose or to be edited maliciously. But let's start with getting everyone on XMPP and OTR.
.onion could be added too. Just a matter of running tor node.
Along publishing IP addresses it is also possible to use OpenNIC domains. It is alternative DNS system. Also, IIRC, there are some projects of DHT based DNS systems, but I don't know their current state and are they useable already.
XMPP is good, but Tox is also a good option. It does not need server to work. However, Tox is not very suitable for use on smartphones, due to low but permanent traffic of DHT exchages.
Also don't forget about maillists, IRC and NNTP with your own servers. That oldies are really nice and instant too.