Re: I have often wondered...
Most of what you see on the web is a labor of love, ranging into the obsession zone in many cases.
The cool part is that if you want to find out about even the most obscure subject, somebody out there has made a webpage dedicated to it.
What I really wonder is what these people were doing before the web gave them an outlet. Scrapbooks?
Many people unnerved by "a hundred flowers" actually blooming (instead of being a classic example of lip service) are nostalgic for the days when the information flow came through a few easily-controlled spigots. There was a lot of bullshit back then, too, except there was no place else to say so.
Things are better now. Decentralization is almost always good.