Plebbit is a selfhosted, opensource, nonprofit social media protocol, this project was created due to wanting to give control of communication and data back to the people.
Plebbit only hosts text. Images from google and other sites can be linked/embedded in posts. This fixes the issue of hosting any nefarious content.
ENS domain are used to name communities.
Plebbit currently offers different UIs. Old reddit and new reddit, 4chanw, andhave a Blog. Plebbit intend to have an app, internet archive, wiki and twitter and Lemmy. Choice is important. The backend/communities are shared across clients.
You can always run your own instance and federate with everyone
Oh boy, you have any idea how costly running an instance is ?
I do. It can be pretty cheap if you don't open it up for other users. Otherwise it can get pricy.
No it isn't, otherwise everyone would be doing it & it is only "cheap" in 1st-world countries
Most people don't because they dont have the technical skills to maintain a server or because they dont feel it's worth the effort with open servers existing. A small vps can be rented for less than $5 per month or a mini pc can be bought for $50. Not everyone can afford that, but those prices are not prohibitive for everyone outside the first world.