This exact problem also affects Discord/Slack "communities": You have to find them, get an invite, maybe the conversation is viewable in the free tier's limited scrollback, but in any case they're never going to be searchable and useful over the long term.
Discord's scrollback is -- as far as I can tell -- unlimited. One server I'm in has over 20M messages, and (after some clicking) I'm able to scroll all the way back to the first messages posted over four years ago.
You're absolutely right that discoverability for older messages is poor, though.
ive seen those referenced more as the modern internet version of “the bar”. you pop in, engage in the current conversation in your desired channel, then good luck finding much in history.
