I have been successfully hosting a Matrix instance (Synapse) for a few friends since January. Definitely a learning process but I have to say the docs are excellent. Reverse proxy and federation was a little bit tricky but has been working fine. I've also since migrated from a bare metal setup to a containerized one with very little hassle beyond understanding the basics of migrating the database, etc.

Thanks for creating! still finding my way around the fediverse and not especially involved on r/washingtondc in the past, but figured I'd seek out some other local folks here!