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How Quora died

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Re: How Quora died

#91

Post by throw310822 »

apexalpha wrote: post #69
throw310822 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Wikipedia entries have become extremely partisan, and kept that way by moderators who are deeply invested in certain narratives. I find it very disappointing that no countermeasures have been taken- afaik Wikipedia still works exactly like 20 years ago, a barebone wiki governed by a lot of obscure, complex and unstructured politics. Granted, it might be the best possible way for an open-source encyclopedia t…

Could you point to some examples of partisan entries?

As one example, I wrote this comment a few weeks ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38974614

But to expand a bit, for example I'm annoyed at many of the entries calling their subject "conspiracy theory/ theorist". Not that conspiracy theories and their believers don't exist, but at this point it has become a highly pejorative and judgemental term to frame ideas and narratives that need to be stigmatized rather than explained. Passing judgements should not, in my view, be the primary focus of an encyclopedia entry.

Re: How Quora died

#92

Post by Waterluvian »

It’s profound to me how many good ideas there are online that aren’t sufficiently profitable. Reminds me of the fundamentals of the “old Web” full of altruistic endeavours.

Re: How Quora died

#93

Post by frfl »

conductr wrote: post #63
matsemann wrote: post #4

When I visit Quora, mainly through it being a result for something I've searched for on Google, I can never quite understand what's the question, the answer, and what's an answer to something completely different. So I've never felt compelled to stay or join myself. Also, for a while I just hit a login wall, which of course makes you not click a link there the next time.

I’m not sure what their business model is, I assume ads, so I always wonder what good the login wall does and making the UX so horrible. I too only ever get there from a Google search too, much like Wikipedia, but with Wikipedia I’m usually going to make a few clicks once I’m there as the related link exploration is natural. I assume quora could get more clicks out of me if it wasn’t so awful. They’ve instead taught…

Biggest difference is Wikipedia isn't ad driven and the information on there is actually interesting, naturally drives you to explore. My bounce rate is 100% and I rarely click a Quora link if I can help it. 1% useful 99% noise.

I agree with StackExchange, sometimes the random things on the sidebar grab my attention, whether it's some random travel question, workplace, about writing/sci-fi, etc.

Pinterest is another spammy site. Same with Quora. Like what is the model here? Spam SEO, drive ad revenue? In my experience Yahoo Answers was 10x more interesting than anything Quora offers, but maybe I and others like me are the exception and companies like Quora are actually getting eyeballs with their UX and business model and that's why Yahoo Answers isn't a thing anymore.?

Re: How Quora died

#94

Post by moralestapia »

voisin wrote: post #67
input_sh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not here to defend Quora, but my speculation is that Google's preference for long-form content is equally to blame. Basically the same reason as recipes that start with a long life story: Google prefers pages with lots of content, even if 10% of it is actually useful to anyone. So a page with 50+ "answers" is preferable to a page with two actual answers.

> Google prefers pages with lots of content And that’s how Google search will be overtaken by GPT with ease. People want answers, not an ad-driven algorithm’s desire for content that is long enough to support more ads.

Exactly this.

I was recently involved in a decision of whether or not to make a nascent community SEO-friendly, which meant significant changes to the UI and reduced UX. In the end the conclusion was "f... SEO, let's build something good instead and have users come back because of that".

Re: How Quora died

#95

Post by croisillon »

scarface_74 wrote: post #52
matsemann wrote: post #4

When I visit Quora, mainly through it being a result for something I've searched for on Google, I can never quite understand what's the question, the answer, and what's an answer to something completely different. So I've never felt compelled to stay or join myself. Also, for a while I just hit a login wall, which of course makes you not click a link there the next time.

Quora is the only site that I actively block to make sure that I don’t go there by mistake. It has to be the worse site on the internet.

nah i think pinterest is even a notch worse

Re: How Quora died

#97

Post by nonrandomstring »

scarface_74 wrote: post #58
nonrandomstring wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. I've a simple but strict set of security rules for whether I'll use a website. - it does not want to run javascript - that I can access it over Tor without being blocked - that it will work in a text based browser like elinks Despite the protestations by idealogues that no such sites exist, HN meets all those requirements, as do dozens of useful sites I regularly use. If and only if I get to evaluate the qual…

I can 100% guarantees you that Quora didn’t die because of people who didn’t want to run JavaScript or be able to access it over Tor.

Surely my absence played no pivotal role in their downfall. I didn't even know Quora had "died". How sad. RIP Quora. But a tjpnz said:

"They're also driving away contributors with more altruistic motivations"

Now, I can agree with that, because I see a very strong alignment between the set of people who strongly uphold their own values and have self-respect, and those who stand up for the rights of others and have something to give.

The "walled garden" internet basically drives away people who give a fuck.

Re: How Quora died

#98

Post by fallingknife »

seadan83 wrote: post #60
ivanmontillam wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikimedia is a non-profit that operates like a for-profit when the yearly round of donations comes around. They literally hoard money[0]. I will get downvoted for this, but it's my perception. -- [0]: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wikipedia-millions-bank-beg/

Interesting reference. Non profits cannot hoard money. I believe it becomes taxable and they can lose their non profit status (i am not an expert) Though, hoarding seems like a mischaracterization. Per the article linked, the cash burn rate is on the order of $100M/yr, having $150M in the bank is 18 months worth of funding. The biggest gripe I read in the article is the "high" expenditure rate and how necessary it is…

I guess I can't see the reasonable argument that it is necessary when you look at the growth rate of their spending.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has...

If they kept expenditures low and hoarded, I would actually be fine with that and happy to contribute. I see nothing wrong with forming a large endowment for a project like Wikipedia.

Re: How Quora died

#99

Post by dbbk »

matsemann wrote: post #4

When I visit Quora, mainly through it being a result for something I've searched for on Google, I can never quite understand what's the question, the answer, and what's an answer to something completely different. So I've never felt compelled to stay or join myself. Also, for a while I just hit a login wall, which of course makes you not click a link there the next time.

The single change they made that killed the platform was changing the dropdown default from "answers to the question" to "answers to related questions".

Absolutely insane.

Re: How Quora died

#100

Post by frfl »

croisillon wrote: post #95
scarface_74 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quora is the only site that I actively block to make sure that I don’t go there by mistake. It has to be the worse site on the internet.

nah i think pinterest is even a notch worse

Quora and Pinterest... one has cornered the text-based SEO-spam segment, other has cornered the SEO-spam image segment.
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