I want to add a couple of good ones I’ve found:
Jeff the Killer lost media: no one knows where the original Jeff The Killer image came from.
Mortis.com: old weird website
Also here’s a good website on various obscure computer/Internet related oddities: https://suricrasia.online/iceberg/
Was trying to say Cicada 3301 went nowhere. It’s been a decade. The puzzle gave no assurance that it wasn’t some amateur thing to start out with, and there was a TopTenz video that showed the end of the clue hunting puzzles was simply some obscure musical band making a game with no other prize than front row seats to a personal performance.
Another example of overblownness, if we may call it that, is the CIA’s supposed Kryptos statue. Or the Gravity Falls puzzle. When was the last time you heard a puzzle actually culminate or clarify the “race” ended? How do people think cults work?
I cannot find a single credible source for the band thing. There is a band called Cicada 3301 but they are completely unrelated. They named themselves after it but do not have any connection or affiliation. I wouldn’t exactly use a Top 10 video as a reputable source.
As for Kryptos, it’s a world famous and unsolved bit of cryptography. If it’s overblown then solve it?