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Layoffs hit Quora

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Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#11

Post by kiba »

hinkley wrote: post #4
whalesalad wrote: post #3

It's genuinely hard to believe that Quora is still running.

I find out Quora is still running every time I make a search query and get pages full of useless answers. Oh, here's a bunch of Quora links. I'm screwed.

Perhaps people shouldn't make startup with something as difficult to make profitable as question and answers type content, and instead leave it for an organization that is oriented to that mission.

That way, something like quora would grow more valuable instead of becoming more useless as they attempt to make money out of a squeezed lemon.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#12

Post by marcinzm »

arexxbifs wrote: post #9

> a 10-year-old question-and-answer startup Has the word "startup" simply replaced "company"? I'm thinking we should at least draw the line at a full decade.

Startup seems to mean a company that still hasn't found a way to survive without ever more VC money.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#13

Post by davidw »

kiba wrote: post #11
hinkley wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find out Quora is still running every time I make a search query and get pages full of useless answers. Oh, here's a bunch of Quora links. I'm screwed.

Perhaps people shouldn't make startup with something as difficult to make profitable as question and answers type content, and instead leave it for an organization that is oriented to that mission. That way, something like quora would grow more valuable instead of becoming more useless as they attempt to make money out of a squeezed lemon.

Seems like a windmill people keep tilting at. A while back there was "Experts Exchange" AKA "Expert Sex Change dot com".

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#14

Post by toomuchtodo »

marcinzm wrote: post #12
arexxbifs wrote: post #9

> a 10-year-old question-and-answer startup Has the word "startup" simply replaced "company"? I'm thinking we should at least draw the line at a full decade.

Startup seems to mean a company that still hasn't found a way to survive without ever more VC money.

It’s a shame really that the meaning has been diluted; there are startups worth over $1 billion (not funny money, realistic multiples of ARR based on an arms length offer for shares) that are profitable, and startups that are a VC furnace and will never turn a profit.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#15

Post by rowathray »

xenospn wrote: post #6

There used to be quite a few very interesting and insightful people who answered questions over there. These days it's all people trying to shamelessly self-promote with very low quality answers, something Quora should have banned a long time ago.

Half the answers are by people calling themselves the CEO of some dinky Saas thing with five bucks recurring revenue. I don't even click on it if it comes up.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#16

Post by bpodgursky »

pbreit wrote: post #5
whalesalad wrote: post #3

It's genuinely hard to believe that Quora is still running.

I don’t get it either. They claim 300m MAUs and healthy answer growth. While it’s SEO is fantastic, the actual content is pretty marginal. I have no idea what the ultimate point is like I do with, say, Wkipedia.

The odd thing about Quora is that there's actually a lot of good content, but it doesn't show up in search results because the questions that trigger it are of the format "Tell me something interesting about history / technology / whatever"

The "hard fact" questions have answers that suck. Absolutely. SO is wildly better for that.

It's really a place to go to follow certain people you can rely on to post interesting stuff (ex, there's a lot of really good ASOIAF content), follow niche topics and waste time. Like an entirely text-based reddit.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#17

Post by lkschubert8 »

xenospn wrote: post #6

There used to be quite a few very interesting and insightful people who answered questions over there. These days it's all people trying to shamelessly self-promote with very low quality answers, something Quora should have banned a long time ago.

I'd be surprised if that wasn't a decent chunk of their traffic.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#19

Post by skissane »

arexxbifs wrote: post #9

> a 10-year-old question-and-answer startup Has the word "startup" simply replaced "company"? I'm thinking we should at least draw the line at a full decade.

Often people use the word "startup" simply to mean "private company which plans on an IPO but hasn't had one yet" (as opposed to public companies, and private companies that have no plan to ever IPO)

Sometimes a private company can take 10 or more years to reach the IPO stage. This is probably especially true for bootstrapped companies which can grow at a more steady pace than those VC-backed from very early on

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