Classical message boards - single topic community web sites that you have to sign up and register for individually - are pretty much dead, with few exceptions.

Why?

I see a message board community exactly like TV "Cheers" .... "where everyone knows your name".

"Cheers" the TV show lasted from 1982 to 1993.

I believe the concept of a meeting place or "third place", a "regular hangout" is a boomer concept.

It makes sense to those who were born in the 1940s through perhaps the early 1970s, say.

The generations afterward don't socialize like that. They have tighter circles of friends and they stay anonymous in groups.

"Cheers" the show probably died out partly because the concept of a regular hangout was becoming implausible. I've noticed that people rarely if ever talk about making a particular place of business "their own" like past generations.