[Web3] Create a decentralized, minimalist forum database

Good afternoon. First of all, apologies for my English – it's not my native language, and I have to rely on online translators, including AI-powered ones. I do try to proofread everything afterward to make sure my original meaning comes through. I live in a country where restrictions on the internet are getting tighter, blocking access to resources that used to be vital for me and many of my friends and acquaintances. Things like specialized forums, classified and barter boards, and knowledge libraries. These restrictions cut off simple, free (no VPN needed) access to foreign platforms like these. Meanwhile, our local alternatives are falling prey to modern trends: monopolization, simplification, introducing paid subscriptions and services, and an overall shift toward the simplistic and the superficial. I'm part of a dying breed – engineers and garage tinkerers. The old, well-organized forums are dying. My colleagues and I are being forced into chat groups and large article aggregators, where our highly specialized topics don't interest the majority, so algorithms never promote them. In a chat, your question, a helpful tip, or an answer gets scrolled away in seconds, impossible to find unless someone guesses the right keyword to search for who said what and when. These social networks, chats, and media platforms just aren't suited for thoughtful, thorough problem-solving and conversation. This culture of short attention spans is killing our ability to develop ideas (debatable, I know, but that's a topic for another discussion). Anyway, enough of that. It just explains where I'm coming from, even if it sounds like an old man yelling at clouds. As you can probably tell from my text, a simple, text-based internet is more than enough for me, and it's what I miss. I suspect and hope I'm not alone in this. I'm pretty convinced that for self-development and genuinely useful interaction, humanity needs exactly this kind of internet – one based on a plain, comfortable, and highly structured forum for everything, but kept as minimalist as possible. Ideally, it would be decentralized, anonymous if desired, and not tied to any specific servers, owners, data transmission methods, or technologies. But a forum is just a way to display information. The information itself – the database – is what truly matters. That's where we should start, maybe and stop there. So, what I'm really interested in is helping to design and describe a database structure. A universal standard that could be used with any method of displaying information (with a forum being the most basic and likely one) and any method of transmitting it. Let me clarify right away: while I'm little bit involved in programming and IT, it's more as a garage tinkerer than a professional developer. I struggle to explain things clearly and accessibly. I imagine my ramblings sound naive and foolish to experts, and overly complicated and confusing to non-experts. My first goal here is to actually formulate my thoughts (maybe with your help or based on your criticism) into something that makes sense to the people who could actually build it. For context, this isn't a new my obsession. I've explored different projects and even talked with some of their creators (like Retroshare, Diaspora, Bitmessage, Disroot, 0net, FedaNET (croco), Nostr and etc.). The very fact they exist proves that all these ideas are feasible and work in practice (and I know they're not original to me; I'm fully aware I'm not the first down this path and don't claim any ownership). The problem with many of these projects, though, is that their creators build their own infrastructure for their own goals and their own vision, which often only appeals to them and a small group of followers. They get limited by their chosen transmission methods, ideology, protocols, structure, or some feature they think is their project's unique selling point, but which actually becomes a limitation which scares many people away. They often chase trends and turn into quasi-social networks or chats, or they get stuck in the past, trying to resurrect things that are obsolete (and I know at first glance, my "forum idea" might seem the same, but hopefully it's just a first impression). Let me get to the point of my proposal (though I realize I've already written a novel and most people probably won't read this far). 1. Create the foundational documents: Descriptions, justifications, and a clear roadmap for the project. This is what I'm trying to do with a couple of like-minded people I've found, hoping others will join. 2. Choose initial platforms: Pick a few places to host all materials, work-in-progress, and discussions, completely free and open, with no copyright claims or restrictions on use (except maybe adhering to local laws where required). But without being tied to those specific platforms. Following the project's own philosophy, the information should be free to spread anywhere, anyhow. 3. Grow the audience: Attract people through articles on various sites and word-of-mouth. Everything runs on pure enthusiasm. Over the years, I can confidently say that it works and people who just happened to stumble upon it and got interested provided invaluable help. This doesn't surprise me. In our garage tinkerer communities, that's exactly how we create something truly unique and useful. 4. Build a prototype: Create a database prototype. Define its structure, fields, and methods for data synchronization. 5. Test: Test the database on various resources, devices, protocols, and platforms. 6. Let it grow: If it shows any sign of working, it should ideally start evolving on its own once it reaches a critical mass of interested people. This isn't everything... Over the past two years, I've accumulated a lot of ideas and discussions, which I'd previously just collected and only developed the parts that interested me personally. It's only recently that I've started trying to structure it all. The rules of the service do not allow me to write everything here at once, and the moderators ask me to be more concise. Everything else I can apparently supplement in the comments. Sorry for such a long first post; I hope I haven't broken any rules. If you're interested in talking about this, I will be happy to talk here within my capabilities.