I think to a certain extent Bruce Sterling anticipated your thoughts in his classic cypher punk novels: all the elite hackers met in areas they controlled and that had to be broken into... I've often wished for a place with a higher bae to entry but then privately wonder if that's one of the /r/iamverysmart thoughts I should just quietly strangle before sharing it with others.
There's nothing wrong with having a filter. If I want to have a deeply technical discussion that requires a decade+ of speciality knowledge to understand, then so be it, that discussion isn't for everyone. Being on the edge of a knowledge domain is difficult enough as it is. Pushing the boundaries of my own knowledge requires like-minded individuals, and stopping to explain kills the flow.
There are plenty of other times when a more open, informal setting is appropriate, and beginners and journeymen are welcome. But not every time.
The old 2600 website was organized in circles with innoquous hacking challenges to enter, it could still be done somewhat, if one can solve the issue of simply googling solutions
That's the other half of the challenge: preventing the solutions showing up on stackoverflow. Hell maybe you use a few easily googled solutions as a way to mark the script kiddies and shuffle them into their own swamp.
