I am fine moving posts into new threads, but it is always awkward to set a title… 
Funny you should mention Citadel, as I keep referencing that in my thinking, since it is marketed as “groupware” collaboration platform.
The process for me involved asking what made a BBS a BBS. I have the same question about MUx servers (and honestly, wikae as well); if I break down their attributes, other systems have those attributes, but just not in a particular configuration that says, “oh, this is a such and such system”.
For me, including a modem stack in a BBS project, or telnet in a MUD project, these are silly throwbacks and should be discouraged. I know these are very heavy hobbyist territories, but if want the benefits of those systems, we have to scrape away the parts that are purely hobbyist or nostalgic, and then we have the crux of what we are looking for.
Because when I MUD or login to a remote system, I am not trying to emulate a 30 year-old interface, I am trying to feel like I did using those systems, connecting with people in a particular way. If those feelings were enhanced by the restraints of the tech, it is a great revelation, and I look for it! But in my case the experiences are not based on the tech involved.
Okay, so when I think of a BBS, the main appeal are “doors”. And not specific doors, just the concept of external interfaces from a single space… sounds a lot of apps in Nextcloud to me.
I’ve also considered if I should look for something like loading arcade games into a WordPress site, as I’ve seen plugins like that, but Nextcloud is a different creature, in that it is based on groups first and foremost, so all the apps are created through that lens, creating spaces that make me feel the same as using an asynchronous BBS where folks aren’t logged in at the same time.
Also, because so much of my early internet usage was downloading text files to read and share on floppies. 
I have this domain, mage.party. I plan to use it for my group activities (interi for knowledge, maiki.blog for personal, mage.party for community). Among the projects I’d like to have on there is a Nextcloud instance, with less focus on file sharing (it is federated, so I am hoping to spread the cost of hosting massive RPG PDF and ROM collections 
), and more about not only using Nextcloud as an internet user, but specifically for having fun with one’s friends. Because if we aren’t having fun, da fuck are we doing, ne?
