There was an Ask HN (or similar) a while ago where someone was saying that they run a Discord server for active and committed independent game developers, and they were asking if anyone was interested in joining (I can't remember exactly). They wouldn't let just anyone in, to get in you had to schedule an interview with the moderators and show that you were a committed game developer. They were a tight community who shared experiences and helped each other. It sounds great.

The problem for me (and you) is that I'm not in it. The problem for a high school student who just wants to learn is that he's not allowed in either. The problem for most of the world is that the great insights within this community are forever hidden.

Perhaps small communities could nominate generally useful conversations and have them released as blog posts. At least then people could watch from the outside, while the community still remains small and private (not everything would be published).