Welcome back! The community is still thriving!
Many of the Gitter rooms were retired simply because they were a little redundant. Some of them are still active - but the contributors one is the only one I visit regularly.
Meetups and local FB groups are managed locally. Most cities and many regional centres have meetups still - you can try and find something local here:
You may also like the #freeCodeCamp twitter hash tag, and #100daysOfCode, which was started by a prominent camper a while back.