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Layoffs hit Quora

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Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#61

Years ago, I would occasionally answer a question on Quora, which usually seemed like a real question from a person trying to figure something out (for example, software career questions). In recent years, oddly, even the questions seem fake, as if somebody somewhere is being paid to come up with questions. Why would I spend time to answer if not even the person asking seems to really care? Perhaps, I am not the only…

I commented on that, about politics. I had a quora account for about one year and answer many questions, but then it became worst and I couldn't participate anymore.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#62
post #59

Not sure if a bit of confirmation bias on my side but seems like there is a recent big uptick of layoffs at Silicon Valley companies? Popular ones like Quora, TripAvisor, Ebay, Mozilla, Uber, 23andMe, etc we hear about but among my own network, i am even hearing it from smaller startups & businesses. Just wondering if it is just me but I am surmising that it seems to indicate a wider systematic.. issue? Maybe issue i…

These are signs of the upcoming global economic crisis. Companies funded by the FED are simply not sustainable.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#63
I used to be quite active on Quora, but have noticed a decline in content and ux quality - seems like they are trying to 'growth hack' in a way that is not benefiting users, e.g.:

- Links to other questions open in new tabs

- Most content is not shown unless you login, they are really trying to push being logged in and their mobile app

- Answers with images seem to be ranked higher (even if poor quality)

- Clickbait-y questions and answers

I hope they can return to quality since in the beginning it was such a great resource - it was awesome to be able to get answers from domain experts, celebrities, etc... and the site was very usable.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#64

> 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.

I have recently interviewed at one of the largest, oldest educational institutions in the US, and also interviewed at one of the largest tech companies in the world. Both of them used the phrase “want to work at a startup?” in the job descriptions and both hiring manager said something along the lines of “we have a great startup culture”.

At this point the word is meaningless to me. If anything I have noticed that “we are like a startup” is really code for “we are incredibly disorganized and chaotic but for some reason we are proud of it.” Any time something went wrong with one of these companies (was late to a meeting, forgot to attach something to an email, etc) the excuse was "sorry, that's just how it is working at a startup haha!"

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#65

Any company that relies on SEO content is basically going to disapear. Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes. Not only that, other lower ranked content can be verified to be "true" using neural network based NLP, meaning that the value of content has gone down. Google stole the business of q…

Have you considered that Quora is failing because it's user-hostile? I do not visit Quora links on Google because I know it's going to tease me with a snippet and force me to login.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#66
post #65

Any company that relies on SEO content is basically going to disapear. Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes. Not only that, other lower ranked content can be verified to be "true" using neural network based NLP, meaning that the value of content has gone down. Google stole the business of q…

Have you considered that Quora is failing because it's user-hostile? I do not visit Quora links on Google because I know it's going to tease me with a snippet and force me to login.

yeah I also think their machine learning is terrible. Their recommendation engine was so bad that I unsubscribed, it was completely overfit.

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#68
post #65

Any company that relies on SEO content is basically going to disapear. Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes. Not only that, other lower ranked content can be verified to be "true" using neural network based NLP, meaning that the value of content has gone down. Google stole the business of q…

Have you considered that Quora is failing because it's user-hostile? I do not visit Quora links on Google because I know it's going to tease me with a snippet and force me to login.

That plus it seems >90% of answers are guerilla advertising

Re: Layoffs hit Quora

#70
post #68
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that Quora is failing because it's user-hostile? I do not visit Quora links on Google because I know it's going to tease me with a snippet and force me to login.

That plus it seems >90% of answers are guerilla advertising

I'm pretty sure every time I've Googled something and got a Quora link and clicked it, it's just been an ad.

I just don't click Quora links anymore.

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