Reminds me of m favorite late 90s messenger, Odigo[0]. It had some sort of radar which showed you people who were visiting the same site. It sure had this town hall feel, but admittedly most sites were simply empty.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odigo_Messenger

i remember our 90s ISP advertising the use of PowWow[0] as a way to surf the web with other people. I never used it, but it seemed like a fun idea

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowWow_(chat_program)