1. Muck about with Netbird (oops, wait, that wasn't on the list!)
2. Walk the dog.
3. Tidy the garden.
4. Replace the shower curtain.
5. Clean and lubricate the bean-to-cup coffee machine.
6. Book holiday flights.

With a toaster.

Do you mean Patrick Stewart or from the description of the character?

They are two different countries.

Inconceivable!

Element is UK and EU-based, not US-based.

Lemon or lime?

Poor Annie.

By default a retention policy isn't set but, if it is set, it's on a per-room basis. You have to remember Matrix is federated so things are not so clear cut as centralised services.

See, https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/blob/develop/docs/message_retention_policies.md

Effectively, forever.

I run a complete, self-hosted Matrix stack including bridges to WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram and Signal as well as Element Call (Livekit) and MAS (the new authentication system).

I don't think there's any shortcuts. You just need to install them and work through any issues, one-by-one. Start with just the homeserver (Synapse, don't bother with anything else yet) and add one component at a time and get it working before moving to the next.

I will say that having a decent knowledge of reverse proxies, networking, DNS and certificates will help you greatly. Having a solid understanding of Docker (if you're using Docker) would be of great benefit too.

It should be much easier today than it was five/six-odd years ago when I started; things are more polished now than they were then.

Life is about to get very expensive for Americans.

Haha. Oops. I should have checked first. Well done.

... or just publish the source on Github and let someone else continue the legacy.

They're just hosting existing FOSS alternatives.

https://thistothat.com/

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Here are some spare commas. Feel free to use them.

No.

Yep!