It's _a_ way that you can look up people. I'm guessing that many people here are already connected with r/l scenes to the extent that they want to be. I used to be a lot more active locally, but I'm not really into public use or sharing, and there is a significant portion of people "in the scene" who are kind of gross.
I'm sorry you didn't know in all those years about munches or local eventsI can imagine how much of a wonderful revelation that must have been. It's awesome when people find things that make them happy
My neck of the woods is San Francisco and the Bay Area. Sadly I'm pretty sure San Francisco doesn't have any kind of BDSM scene, and so I will be stuck in pretend land forever.
Does Fetlife have a membership cost?