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Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

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Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#91

Post by kmontrose »

kylec wrote: post #81
kmontrose wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you can participate (well, post answers/questions; no rep is gained) as an unregistered user without giving us an e-mail address at all (or even giving us a bogus one, we don't check). If you do provide one, it lets you recover your cookie based account is all. The "account" is as throw away as you want it to be, basically.

I just tried a test post and it won't let me proceed without putting an email address in.

Ah, my bad; been a long time since I've had to do anything as an unregistered user, mis-remembered.

Looking at the code, we do require something that looks like an e-mail, for recovery purposes (I assume, that code predates me by a bit). It is not, however, verified.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#92

Post by mattwijas »

spicyj wrote: post #89
codinghorror wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, as long as you provide a valid email (we don't check) you can do an account recovery to reinstate your cookie via email. The main limitation of being unregistered is that you can't ever vote on anything -- but you DO accrue other non-voting privileges through reputation like regular users.

Why don't you let unregistered users vote?

That would probably make the system more susceptible to gaming by spammers.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#93

Post by tiernano »

spicyj wrote: post #89
codinghorror wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, as long as you provide a valid email (we don't check) you can do an account recovery to reinstate your cookie via email. The main limitation of being unregistered is that you can't ever vote on anything -- but you DO accrue other non-voting privileges through reputation like regular users.

Why don't you let unregistered users vote?

I'm guessing (don't know for sure here) its an anti-spam measure...

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#94

Post by caf »

ivoflipse wrote: post #87
barmstrong wrote: post #67

StackOverflow is definitely more important right now. But one thing I think they're messing up is the process for launching new StackExchange sites. They're trying this thing to qualify new sites to ensure they have critical mass, but I think it's too restrictive and hurting their growth. As an example, I "pledged" to contribute to the AI stack exchange site if it were to launch. When it launched as a trial it receiv…

So you base that Stack Exchange has failed on one out of the two failed sites, out of over forty proposals that are still there? As has already been mentioned elsewhere, if the site lacks genuine expertise of the topic, the blind will simply follow the other blind. Putting a site that doesn't work out of it's misery is doing the users a favor in the long run

I'm not sure that raw activity level is a good proxy for the amnount of genuine expertise in the topic that is present.

Some topics - of which AI is quite possibly one - are simply more niche than others, and therefore naturally will have less askers, less answerers and less experts.

Perhaps a better metric than raw activity level would be proportion of questions without an accepted answer? The tumbleweed sites that "don't work" would be characterised by many unanswered questions.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#95

Post by kmontrose »

nepenthe wrote: post #88
kmontrose wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you can participate (well, post answers/questions; no rep is gained) as an unregistered user without giving us an e-mail address at all (or even giving us a bogus one, we don't check). If you do provide one, it lets you recover your cookie based account is all. The "account" is as throw away as you want it to be, basically.

Sorry I was not clear and it is not terribly important. I've just wondered what it actually means to be "registered." If I have recovered my cookie-based account it means the account has been verified by e-mail. I'm just wondering isn't that a form of registration without having to have used OpenID?

Its mostly a distinction between "can login with one click (Registered with OpenId/Facebook)" and "can login with a crazy convoluted path (provide email [again], check email for link, etc.) (Unregistered)".

You can get the lion's share of a Stack Exchange's utility without registering, and this is quite intentional.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#96

Post by charlesju »

gojomo wrote: post #66
charlesju wrote: post #53

I was actually thinking about a startup idea around this general theme. I'm going to share it with Hacker News, tell me what you think. I do not think reputation should be owned by a single site because unlike social networking, there are going to be lots of places to contribute to your online presence. Yes, stack overflow is important when trying to hire a programmer, but I have also looked at blogs, twitter, github…

This has been tried in several eras; there was an initiative 'OpenPrivacy' (folding around 2002) that wanted a standard for portable profiles and reputations, and this also seemed to me the original focus of RapLeaf. More recently, about.me (acquired by AOL) and flavors.me have tackled one portion of this, the user-controlled aggregation of their multiple presences. There may still be prospects for a new service, tho…

These are not addressing the same problem, which is that we're shifting from a stand alone idea sharing platform model to a community idea sharing platform model that needs consolidation from the inherent fragmentation of the ecosystem (Quora, Hacker News, etc.)

I think those are all trying to tackle a subtle difference than what I am talking about. About.me and Flavors.me is more so about one off content creation and status profile sites (blogs, twitter, linkedin, facebook).

What I'm saying is that things like Quora, Hacker News, are now becoming the preferred medium to share ideas as opposed to standalone sites. Many Quora answers are essentially blog posts.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#97

Post by kunley »

I strongly disagree with the common conception that high points on StackOverflow would be a good measure of coder's quality. They are merely the measure of someone's involvement in answering the questions.

Sadly, many answerers are just point hunters. They seem to monitor questions and quickly google for answers. I observed this asking specific detailed questions. Most answers were something obvious, something without accordance to the details of the question, or just blind guesses. People are just putting answers in the hope they will earn at least an upvote!! It's not only stupid, but i guess it's a massive abuse of the original idea behind this site.

Add the fact that most points are earned by people answering questions about C#/.NET. It's related to the fact that this platform somehow has masses of mediocre programmers, or even people suddenly put in the role of programmers. They go asking tons of questions while they should rather RTFM or polish their skills by coding. No wonder that a mass of questions generates a mass of answers. So the whole stack exchange idea of points is about quantity, not quality.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#98

Post by joe_the_user »

alain94040 wrote: post #29
neutronicus wrote: post #5

let people log in with Twitter and Facebook, to make StackExchange reputations easily exportable to other platforms. StackOverflow should change absolutely nothing about their login process. It is perfect. I anonymously answered one question, and all of a sudden I have a profile. No confirmation e-mail, no Facebook or Twitter crap. Just use the site and bam! you're registered. It remembers me every time I come back a…

StackOverflow should change absolutely nothing about their login process. It is perfect Maybe it works for you, but I'm still utterly confused about how to login. But hey, I only have about 25 years of coding and online experience. To be fair, it's not SO's fault.

I've got an openID login for stackoverflow and it's a pain to constantly re-log-in. AND the orange 'welcome' pop-over is really obnoxious. I've mostly abandoned participating there after getting barely 1000 karma a year ago.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#99

Post by robryan »

SwellJoe wrote: post #20
brown wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that we're seeing the results of the tech blogger echo chamber. These self proclaimed experts need methods to legitimize their existence and quantify their awesomeness. What better way than a big fat number on the one end-all-be-all site? See also: Scoble was biggest contributor on Quora. Of course, it's all ridiculous (for now). Most people in the real world have better things to do than troll around on…

I'd be hesitant to hire someone that had huge karma on any site (including HN), unless they had real projects to show that their passions include shipping rather than just talking real pretty about it on the Internet. Someone can be clever and knowledgeable, and still be a poor employee or co-founder. (And, my least productive times are often when I'm most interested in what's happening on reddit/HN/etc.)

Decently large karma means there would be a lot of comments to browse through though which can give you an idea about the person. To a point be knowledgeable on startups and the tech scene is an advantage but yeah there is a point where time is better spend getting something done.

Re: Quora vs. StackExchange: Why, Joel, Why?

#100

Post by Locke1689 »

chc wrote: post #69
Simucal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see why a non tech-savvy user would be confused by OpenID but I it surprises me how many programmers are confused by it. On the login page they list a bunch of common providers you can login with if you already have an account with them: Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, etc. Click their icon, type in your credentials. If you don't have an account with one of those or don't wish to use them then it has a big regist…

You're making the same mistake as people who try to get programmers to fix their printer because programmers are "computer people." Competence with one technology does not confer instant familiarity with another — and however clear you might find OpenID, just the array of company logos alone is kind of overwhelming and highly unusual. Pretty much the opposite of "Don't make me think."

To a certain extent, security will always have to make the user think. There's simply no way around that without complete service dictation.
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