You mean a desktop application? If so you can use the web version, or even better, use Ferdium. It lets you connect to various messaging services and integrates them like a native desktop app.

This was a local instance.

I asked it about Tiananmen Square, it told me it can’t answer that because it can only respond with “harmless” responses.

Canadian Tire has a habit of asking for all my personal details when I return an item (still in box, unopened. WITH the receipt). I politely tell them it’s never going to happen, and that my personal info is protected by Canadian privacy laws. They usually just nod and do the return.

I feel like nowadays there’s less forums or places people can ask help with

I’m sorry, what??

There are more places than ever to find support. The Ubuntu forums, EndeavourOS forums, Manjaro forums, NixOS forums, SUSE forums, etc. Just about every larger distro has it’s own forum and they’re all very active. Then there are general Linux, Linux “newbie”, Linux help communities on the various Lemmy servers and (whether you like it or not) on Reddit also. Then there’s Mastodon. General tech forums like Level1Tech, Hacker News, etc.