I'm so old that DECA would raise money by distributing a 20-question survey, entering the results into a PDP-11, running it through Meyers-Briggs, spitting out ten matches per entry and charging $2 to hand that slip of paper back to you. And we all paid and never talked about it again.
I matched really well with a friend's sister who suffered a schizophrenic break about six months later. She was a family friend, and she disappeared, and nobody talked about it. I can't imagine what that system would do with "pronouns" and checking the "I'm gay" box, were it to exist, would probably have gotten you killed.
- At the Resi, many provocative notes were passed around, but eager flirters needed to be careful—“messages sent by tube [were] checked by female ‘censors’ in the switchboard room” in an early form of comment moderation.
I'm absolutely positive there was nothing problematic whatsoever about "censors in the switchboard room" in "1920s Berlin." Who can say why such a clever system never caught on?
When I saw this posted (Hacker News) somebody commented that there was a fad among British nightclubs in the 80s to put telephones at every table for a similar purpose.
Also, if you haven't watched Babylon Berlin yet, the first couple of seasons are worth a look.