It seems like there are two issues. The first, addressed by BBS's was small communities have self enforced norms. This went away when forums were open to the in

It seems like there are two issues. The first, addressed by BBS's was small communities have self enforced norms. This went away when forums were open to the internet. How do we recapture small communities? The second is the idea of a long form discussion. I don't think BBS's and forums were ever about this. Actually, have we ever had a solution to this? Where can someone write a long, thoughtful piece of prose and have long thoughtful answers delivered back in the same place? Even blog comments tend to be disorganized, devolve, and get side tracked.