Wow. Amazing analysis -- put into words very well the reason for the change in content, culture, and consumption of media since the rise of the internet.
I've discovered the same as you. The small places in the internet, the HN and specific forums and newsgroups and quiet subreddits, utilizes the ease of internet communication in the best way possible. You unite people of a common interest, which is neccessary for any functional community, but given their size they still have the neccessary diversity of opinions and interests to keep things productive.
But take that ability to communicate, subject it to the tyranny of the masses -- the whole platform goes to hell. Spend 5 minutes on a stranger's facebook, or a pundit's twitter account, or a large subreddit and you can clearly see demonstrated just how shallow, memetic concepts can crowd out any meaningful discourse in a community.
what? are my DropBox files "business records?" or that youtube video I uploaded? or my Google Contacts?
Perhaps I was foolish enough to define "business records" as "documents that record the actions of/facts about a business?"
It is almost certainly against the spirit of the law's definition of "business records" -- ledgers, internal emails, receipts, etc.