if he truly has a "gazillion" servers then I am the more perplexed why he is not aware of at least a dozen different chat server solutions that I can come up with having only a single server at my disposal. It just does not sound completely transparent what he is attempting to do, and if memory serves me well then he was asking the very same question couple months - a year or so ago.
But yet with the ability to come up with a dozen solutions you choose to criticize, imply bad faith and suggest nothing vs. either positively contribute or abstain?
Yes, I have plenty of hardware - in several USA states, Europe and Asia. I also have plenty of public IP addresses. Reality is a chat server can be run on an old laptop so it's not rocket science, I've just never done it so I'm asking you guys so I don't have to make a ton of mistakes in my learning process.
I said that I want to host and control because I want it cut down to barebones, no advertisements, no pop-ups, no nonsense. I'd also like to be able to ban people if they are annoying. Outside that I could care less where the hardware resides - as long as it's free and easy.