Did the old internet make group projects more interesting?

I miss the web because it had a lot of projects that felt like people were trying new things.

Someone could make a website start a forum create a weird counter or launch a community project that was a little strange and people would find it because they thought it was interesting.

The old internet did not always have a plan to make money or a big company behind every project. Sometimes the fun was just seeing if people, on the internet would join in.

The idea is very simple: one million people each give $1. The project sees if the goal can actually be reached.

The idea of making a simple website into a big internet experiment

This made me wonder:

**Are there websites today that feel like the old internet, where people say "lets build something weird and see what happens”?**

What websites, forums, counters, experiments or community projects do you remember that felt like that?