I think that federation is the answer, it's just an answer over a long time rather than an immediate catastrophic paradigm shift.

It might not have taken off yet for message boards, but it's the only way to allow diversity and self-reliance while also allowing a common community and an aggregated large user base.

That's the USP of big tech: Go on facebook or reddit and you can join multiple different communities from one place, whereas it's a unique commitment to be on even a few standalone forums since you routinely have to go to each one. Federate and suddenly you can be in multiple communities that have nothing to do with each other from whichever site you like the design of.