Ask Lemmy

neal.fun definitely deserves a mention.

These games also have a similar feel:
Paper Trader
Guess The Year

Got a few:

https://everynoise.com/ You can find A LOT of music genres here. Genres next to eachother resemble one another. Figure out what you like, and what genres are close to it. Clicking on the >> will take you to artists in this genre, or search for artists in the upper right corner and see what genre they fall under.

https://clickclickclick.click This one is about privacy, see what a browser can track. If you don't know much about pixeltracking, this one is a fun way to learn (and a little creepy hehe)

https://suno.com/create Create your own songs with an AI, just throw in lyrics, a genre, and you are done. A fun way to troll a friend by throwing in an old conversation

https://darknetdiaries.com/ Haven't looked into this one myself, but these are true stories on the darknet, recommended by a friend of mine.

I don't know if it's "lesser known" but I discovered boardgamearena.com last year and I've been addicted ever since.

It's free, but there is a premium membership that gives some extra perks.

Hundreds of boardgames that you can play with others online, from rummy and checkers to Wingspan and Catan.

They offer casual matchmaking and ranked competitive modes and tournaments.

Set up an account and invite me to your favorite game! I would love to learn it! You can figure out my username on there.

https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/

When I discovered this website, I started obsessively relacing all my shoes.

https://puginarug.com/

https://zombo.com/

https://www.yyyyyyy.info/

I like single purpose concept websites that don't do anything. They're the opposite of the modern internet that values engagement above all. They communicate exactly one thing once and though you never have to go back, you're always glad that they're there.

Archive.org has many facets:
Wayback Machine
Internet Arcade
Feature Films
NASA Images
Multiple Image collections
Live Music Archive
Free Audiobook Collection
Open Library
American Libraries

How stuff works is amazing.

Wikipedia should not need to be mentioned.

It's a pretty simple concept with a lot of references, but Floor796 is fun to browse around when I'm bored. There's a few interactive bits too, if you can find them.

Wiby, particularly the "surprise me" option is great for old school sites and that StumbleUpon feeling!

https://wiby.me/surprise/

It is far from lesser known, but my favorite standalone site is still Atlas Obscura.

If you want an excuse to visit random coordinates around you geohashing.site is a interesting option. Each day everyone is given the same set of spots to go to, with optional challenges and badges one can do. Its quite surprising how strong the community has been going despite it's age.

futilitycloset.com/

Futility Closet is a collection of entertaining curiosities in history, literature, language, art, philosophy, and mathematics, designed to help you waste time as enjoyably as possible.

Here's one of my long time favorites:

http://textfiles.com/

https://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates

Use it to see how new monitors are doing. Mostly a toy but I like it.

Blue's News - Video Gaming, Technology and General Interest. I think it's been around since the mid 90s.

https://www.bluesnews.com/

I miss old StumbleUpon! It was great for this. Someone recently introduced me to Flashpoint Archive and I have a hunch that there's a bunch of good stuff there.

This question reminded me of 27b/6, a website with a collections of essays and email exchanges from the author that are like humourous, satirical and based on his life. I had a lot of fun reading them years ago and I remember that it was dormant for a while but coming back it seems to have new material.

Practical: ohmslaw.eu
Fun: murderousmaths.co.uk, htwins.net

https://wikimapia.org/

It's a map site that helps you identify places around the world. Google maps is so commerce-focussed, Open Street Map often lacks an explanation of what something is.

But it clearly has issues such as not licensing the background options so it has watermarks and popups.

Opentripmap.com is similar, but is probably just OSM data.

Wikimapia is great for "what's that wierd marking in the desert"-type questions.

Instant Chewbacca

Seat61.com is a must read if you plan on taking the train.

Vimm's Lair

Z2

A bunch of webcomics

https://rabbit-rabbit.quest/ selects a random location for you to visit every day within walking/cycling distance.

She's gone Ralf, she's gone. Let her go.

Sunnyskyz, it's a positive and upbeat news source and has been my regular news website for some time now! 😃

yucata.de is an online-play boardgame website.

Fully DIY and community built site. Free accounts and free play, although donations are accepted.

Fun small games to start with:

Port Royal, Mountain Goats, Spexxx, Ali Baba, Balloon Cup, Dragonheart, Rose King, Pompeii.

And some quality bigger games:

Bruges, Innovation, Targi, Chakra, Stone Age, Grand Austria Hotel, Imhotep, Finca, Carcassonne South Seas, Thurn & Taxis.

I couldn't think of many less visited sites I usually go to often, but coalregion(dot)com is an interesting site I found using this Wiby search engine a long time ago. It's a site about a region in Pennsylvania. They have a section for recipes supposedly from that region along with a section for words/slang from that regions past. They got other things, but the dictionary and recipes interest me more than the other parts.

sci-news.com is pretty great for science news from a wide variety of fields.

'old internet' ?

RUP is totally sweet.

Someone on Lemmy posted a link to https://corru.observer a week or two ago, and I'm really enjoying the game.

Metafilter is a wonderful weblog, and I also read Canlii, which is a legal case website which is a wonderful rabbit hole to fall down to learn about how legal decisions are made.