> There is a part of me that misses the level of exclusivity BBS's offered, and that part of me continues to try to find online communities that scratch that particular itch (recommendations welcome).

My hope was that wireless mesh networks would fill that void since you have to be physically local to the network to gain access. We could have local/community level LANs with file sharing, gaming, chat, and forums. Instead we got things like facebook groups and Nextdoor.