Ask HN: Has anyone else used online communities that are archetypically "savvy"?

By "archetypically savvy", I mean websites and other online communities that are both somewhat niche and known for specific mannerisms. I'd say that the key mannerism that distinguishes these online communities from the rest is when someone posts a link to another unfamiliar site and other users of the community respond almost reflexively that it is an "ip logger" or an "ip grabber", since they have assimilated into the online community's culture.

I've also found that these sites have a tendency to revolve around their Discord channels more than the actual website, oftentimes creating a secretive culture that lacks transparency. The participants of the Discord usually come there to spill the tea about users who've been caught up in a scandal. At best, it's usually something like a user "scraping the site" or "botting the site", and at worst, the userbase finding out that a prominent user has engaged in online grooming and what have you. More often than not, it's a member of the "staff team" that gets caught red handed.

Lastly, I would also like to mention that online communities that exhibit the hallmarks outlined above seem disproportionately prone to either having server emulators and "private servers" created to replicate the functionality of the online community's website or game, or having parts of their codebase leaked outright. Whichever of those two happens, there's always a culture about users having access to the original site or game source code being the gatekeepers of secret knowledge.

I'm aware that these online communities can be very sketchy, and I don't mean to condone these specific online communities that have these traits. I just want to get everyone's input on the extent that they have encountered online communities that match my description, without explicitly naming the sites or games in question. I just wonder if this archetype is actually more common than I previously thought.