Reference

Internet social experiment websites

Every few years one website turns a simple question into a public spectacle. Here are the ones that stuck, what each one tested, and where this experiment sits in that line.

The Million Dollar Homepage (2005)

What it tested: Sold one million pixels of homepage advertising space at one dollar per pixel to fund a student's tuition.

What happened: Sold out and raised about $1,000,000. It proved that novelty plus a public counter can beat a conventional fundraising pitch.

The Button (2015)

What it tested: A single countdown button on Reddit that reset when anyone pressed it, with no stated purpose or prize.

What happened: Over a million people participated and built an entire culture around it. It showed that a shared live counter is enough to hold attention.

Place (2017)

What it tested: A shared blank canvas where each user could place one pixel every few minutes.

What happened: Millions of users produced a collaborative artwork. It demonstrated coordination between total strangers at scale.

Twitch Plays Pokemon (2014)

What it tested: A video game controlled simultaneously by tens of thousands of viewers typing commands into a chat box.

What happened: The game was finished after sixteen days. Chaotic collective input still converged on a goal.

Make One Guy Rich (2025)

What it tested: A single public money bar tracking how much strangers voluntarily send to one person, with a goal ladder from $1,000 up to $10,000,000 and no reward of any kind offered in return.

What happened: Running now. The open question is whether the internet will make one person rich for no reason other than curiosity about whether it can.

What separates this one

The earlier experiments all gave something back: ad space, a badge, a game, a canvas. This one gives nothing. There is no reward tier, no product and no cause, which is exactly what makes the result meaningful. If the bar moves, it moves because people wanted to see what happens.

Want to move the bar?

Any amount works. The bar updates as soon as the payment clears.

See the live bar