Quora is already “Google Useful” • Hacker News Board

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#31

Post by almost » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 10:14 PM UTC

albemuth wrote: post #24

jclemenson wrote: post #14

Anyone else have a spare invite?

another invite please, I really want to compare this to aardvark which I've become quite addicted to

Add your email address to your profile or something :)

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#32

Post by almost » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 10:16 PM UTC

alextp wrote: post #26

thinker wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a few invites - message me with your email for one

I'm interested too: alexandre.tp at gmail

Sent

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#33

Post by almost » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 10:16 PM UTC

albemuth wrote: post #25

thinker wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a few invites - message me with your email for one

me please, [hn username] at gmail

Sent

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#34

Post by cmelbye » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 10:29 PM UTC

almost wrote: post #30

cmelbye wrote: post #22

I see that two people have already asked, but does anyone else have an invite? charles.melbye at gmail

Sure, sent.

I didn't receive it, are they backed up right now?

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#35

Post by almost » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 10:31 PM UTC

cmelbye wrote: post #34

almost wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, sent.

I didn't receive it, are they backed up right now?

Check your spam folder, they say they're having delivery problems.

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#36

Post by ElbertF » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 11:07 PM UTC

albemuth wrote: post #25

thinker wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a few invites - message me with your email for one

me please, [hn username] at gmail

I sent you one.

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#37

Post by ElbertF » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 11:10 PM UTC

I have invites, reply with your e-mail address if you want one or e-mail me at info@elbertf.com.

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#38

Post by LucaDuval » Fri, Jun 18, 2010, 7:51 AM UTC

mikexstudios wrote: post #13

watty wrote: post #2

What does Quora solve that other existing solutions don't? http://www.mahalo.com/ http://www.formspring.me http://vark.com/ http://answers.yahoo.com/ http://www.chacha.com/ ...

Fast, high quality answers from very intelligent people. Quora's community is small and is primarily composed of people in tech/academia (probably because of its invite system). Real names are displayed (profiles are often linked to facebook accounts) so any response carries some weight of reputation. Every user has a timeline of new questions and recent responses that are filtered towards topics that the user follow…

I did an experiment. I put the same question in a sensible subreddit. I would say that the answers are pretty good.

http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/cg6zq/what_...

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#39

Post by sjs382 » Fri, Jun 18, 2010, 1:48 PM UTC

almost wrote: post #29

sjs382 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone else then? :)

Just sent you one.

Thanks!

Re: Quora is already “Google Useful”

#40

Post by paulgb » Fri, Jun 18, 2010, 1:49 PM UTC

I think it will be interesting to see whether the answer quality can stay the same as the userbase expands. Right now it works well because they have a good set of smart users who contribute answers as well as asking questions. If the site gets flooded by people who only ask questions, the number of answers per question will decrease.

Quora actually reminds me a lot of Yahoo Answers back when it first came out. The community there was smart and quality of answers was high. But they used a game mechanic to ensure that people answered questions, and so the site became flooded with bad answers to the point that it is now useless. I really hope Quora can avoid going this route, as it's a really useful resource as Jason says.