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Someone has already suggested mastadon, but I think Scuttlebutt is a much better solution for what you want. Totally decentralized, persistent, no need for a hosted server. You can set it up in a few minutes and if you're only using it for your small group there's no need to connect to anyone else.

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The problem is that SSB isn’t really private. Anything you share in an offline circle of friends becomes public if any member of the group ever connects to a pub server. There is encrypted messaging, but IIRC last time I tried to use it, the threads maxed out at eight people in the client. There are seven people in my immediate family, so I hit limits very quickly.

You can make your own private network that is cryptographically unable to replicate with other networks (like the main net), but I don't think you should ask close friends and family to edit ~/.ssb/config to add a custom SHS key.

As much as I've loved working on Scuttlebutt, I can't recommend using it for this use-case.

Try: Cocoon.com

It's pricy at $40 per year, but seems to hit all the marks.

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