BBSes still exist. You can use them right now.
The early forums still exist, in some form or another. IRC is still there. A dedicated few keep gopher sites up and running.
Not everyone chose to leave them behind.
This isn't even a "all tens of us!" joke, there are tens of thousands of us.
$ telnet osuny.bell-labs.co 666 Trying 168.235.81.33... Connected to osuny.inri.net.
$ telnet bbs.iscabbs.com Trying 167.88.117.146... Connected to bbs.iscabbs.com.
Over 100 people logged into Particles yesterday.
It seems odd to mourn the death of a friend you no longer call, but who is still very much alive.