There are several forks of Mastodon that have been around for years and work well (not only #Hometown) like #Ecko, #Glitchsoc, etc. for years.

https://joinfediverse.wiki/What_is_Mastodon%3F#What_are_Mastodon_forks_and_why_use_them?

They have many more functions such as editable character limit,
editable poll options, local posts, changeable favicon, markdown formatting - and if that's not enough, there is plenty of other software in the Fediverse for micro- and macroblogging