Some of the best experiences were posting under a handle on a local gaming site and combining being a sarcastic troll with decent contributions to the forum, as well as writing game reviews for the parent web site.
That online community fostered involvement in an RL community through holding LAN gaming events on a weekend, or hanging out with other forum members at a few bars around town. I think you're spot on that localisation is key. I'd go on the world wide web and end up talking trash with a bunch of dudes who lived at most 60km away.
I've often wondered what happened to those hours spent trawling for interesting stuff on the web. I spend more time than is probably healthy on YouTube now, but that's just a second TV via iPad while the wife watches shows on Netflix. I think that it was the newness of the experience back then. Nascent technology is always more fun, as are novel experiences. Now, the net permeates our lives. We work on it, we play on it, we order things for our lives on it, we book our entertainment on it, and we carry it around in our pockets. You're no longer part of a community of people learning things and sharing newness. You're part of a collective engine of "doing things" that everyone is plugged into 24/7, where broadcast is fully enabled and the simple joy of just figuring what you're doing and where you're going on the Internet is gone.
Also, at 39, my opinion on on the state of the Internet is irrelevant. Damn kids. Back in our day, things were much better ;)
Edited to mention MUDs. I can't seem to find many these days. Still a thing?
That online community fostered involvement in an RL community through holding LAN gaming events on a weekend, or hanging out with other forum members at a few bars around town. I think you're spot on that localisation is key. I'd go on the world wide web and end up talking trash with a bunch of dudes who lived at most 60km away.