On the theme of the personal newsletter mentioned in the article, I really like the idea of using a group chat on Matrix with threads [1] as a personal newsletter - where I can post something say once a week and my friends can react or add comments if they wish.

It means they can get a direct notification (if they'd like), on a self hosted platform (my Matrix server), with any client they choose.

[1]: https://matrix.org/blog/category/this-week-in-matrix#element...