I enjoyed this piece, but it's almost as if the title should be something more of a rediscovery more than a return. Small communities never really left.

Agreed that they never left, but they were relegated to the sidelines to be smaller bootstrapped communities.

I do not know that is true either.

What happened is some really big groups formed. The vast majority of smaller communities continued right on.

Many grew by posting in the big places.

Now that big places may be found toxic, or out of favor, the smaller ones will get new attention.

The big places got hype and attention. That is all an addition, and a somewhat unwelcome one just like many smaller communities said it would be.

> Some really big groups formed

IE Reddit? Or do you mean something else?

The usual shiny names. I used the word group because community is somewhat of a stretch.