Metababy is a site that once was a rather successful experiment. The unique thing about it is that there were no users, per se. When someone says that everyone could post, edit, or delete content, they mean EVERYONE. There was no login page, no tracking of IP addresses, or any other real security measure for that matter. While this had no real detrimental effect on the site for roughly three years (possibly more), it eventually led to it's downfall.
Soon after it was established, Metababy became a political sounding board for anyone who felt the need to bitch about stuff that they have no control over, and all too often, no real understanding of. This led to many people stopping use of the site. While it was first a place to post cool pages, HTML tricks, and other stuff, it eventually became an unmoderated forum with people flaming back and forth. However, that's not all. It got worse.
Eventually, someone realized that there was no security or moderation in place, and this led to some general script kiddie mentality type stunts on a daily basis. Goatse and tubgirl pictures were the norm, as were all sorts of other stupid stuff, like mass deletion and 13375p34k galore. It peaked late in 2002 when some dipshit found out that pages were posted to Metababy through a simple HTML form, and that with the use of rudimentary javascript it was possible to spam hundreds and hundreds of pages per minute with varying filenames and any sort of vile content one could imagine.
Due to the way the site was run, nothing could be done about it except shut it down temporarily and hope that the kiddies would go away (the most notorious of them going by the monikers Brainmonster, notorious for posting gore pics over and over, and Yakuza McGee, notorious for posting a racist Korean song over and over. Real professionals here. :( ). This was done numerous times, and has been done probably for good, as the site is still down as of the writeup of this node. The site was shut down in late May, 2003, merely the phrase "I think we could all probably use a rest." in it's place. A lonely reminder of all that was, and all that could have been.
Even if the site is now officially dead, it did provide a rather interesting look at society in general, both through the contents of postings, and through the fact that the site survived with nearly no abuse for three years straight, despite no security measures or repercussions. Though it only really sampled the behavior of a small slice of the internet community, it still makes one think. If common human decency let the site stay up unscathed for three years or more, maybe there is hope for humanity after all.