There's https://curlie.org , it even links to some old-style websites in its collection. I think there are some other sites with similar ideas too, where you can create groups and share bookmarks ( like https://groups.diigo.com )

I had the same idea, I think this is the ultimate solution. Would need to be easy to add links and allow moderators to approve submitted websites and provide a good search capability. Would only include quirky websites.

Wiby.me and oldinter.net are both good starting points

Portals are still sometimes made to make it easier to discover independent content, you aren't the only one concerned about this. However, the problem is that independent creators often stop paying for hosting or domain registration at some point, so any manually created directory eventually abounds with 404s.

So who takes on the full-time job of curation? Could probably get donations eventually, but the portal would have to sufficiently succeed first.

Additional properties it should have:

* Basic HTML only, no Javascript

* No user interaction (comments, etc.)

* Gets updated occasionally but not all the time, perhaps a few times a year