I was on the internet before http - a time when nntp and gopher ruled the waves. At that time and in the decade that followed, the net was populated with geeks, nerds and people who could be considered on the edges of the distribution of societal/behavioural norms in some way. This population was responsible for the overwhelming majority of "content" - said content being published directly by the "content creators". Hence the weird and wacky world of oddball websites that the early www was comprised of. As the skew of netizens changed to reflect that of wider society, so too did the inclination/ability to self-publish content without some help, creating the demand that gave rise to Google, Facebook, Twitter etc. As for the content, its variety came to reflect that of broader society i.e. overwhelmingly vanilla, inane, mundane. The gems are still out there - just like needles in the proverbial haystack.

My 2c.