The structured user information is what I think killed the "free" vibe of the early internet: you naturally see a lot of information even before you contact anyone. That removes some intimacy of exchanging information about who you are, in a way you want. Around 2000, I was playing pool with random people on Yahoo Games, and trying to learn English talking to them. I've met a girl of my age from Jakarta, I talked to some boomer Arizona cowboy who was relieved to know "we're not fucking commies anymore" (I`m Russian). These were interesting conversations where we discovered each other. Now I wouldn't talk to the guy like that, because "I see we probably don't have much in common, and he wrote this and that to other people"