Does that actually exist? I know there are reddit type clones, but I'm yet to see anything that allows me to setup a niche server and only that.

Yeah, there quite a few. Like old-school phpBB is still around[1]. Or, take a look at the list on Wikipedia[2].

Not sure if you're looking for a hosted solution, though. A lot of those would involve you running your own server.

[1] https://www.phpbb.com/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_s...

Discourse also has a (first-party) ActivityPub plugin now!

How I miss my script kiddie days of being 15, downloading "nulled" versions of vBulletin off of Limewire and throwing them up on pocket money paid cPanel web hosting account waiting for it to upload on my parents 56K.

Exploit ridden PHPNuke & e107 CMS too.

We had similar childhoods - though I did phpBB. Never had an audience for the forum, but it was cool just having and styling it. Good times.

Indeed! NodeBB is exactly that, and federates over ActivityPub.

I can't wait till theres a good reddit federated clone.

Lemmy and Piefed are federated Reddit clones. I'm assuming you think they're not good.

What should they improve?

I would love something that is close to phpBB but slightly more modern. Like, phpBB but with federation support and a clean API would be great. But most modern forum-like software is Reddit clones.

Hopefully NodeBB hits that mark. Inspired by phpBB and similar, federating, clean API.