I was contacted today about this, having been out of the loop for ages. The BBC have cut back on their funding, so the axe fell upon their history website discussion boards, which close before Christmas!
This is a shame, many members of a great website I used to frequent (
http://www.englistory.com) also posted there on the Beeb, being a haven of intellectuals by all accounts.
Are there many lively, fun
and intelligent sites to debate historical topics now?