There is space for competition in that area. StackExchange is pretty good, but since they don't allow questions with subjective answers, they basically exclude themselves from the vast majority of the market share. Then there is quora, yahoo answers, ... There is certainly enough space for a few good startups.
Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
61–70 of 191 posts
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Quora has gone the way of expert-sexchange, showing up in Google search results for interesting questions, but then overlaying/replacing most answers with blur and "sign up to read". This shit doesn't fly with Google. Delivering different content to Google bot and the user coming through search makes Google looks like a fool, since the user is unable to find the content he searched for. That is why expert-sexchange…
It looks like what they are doing are obfuscating with CSS. See for example: http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo... The answers are in a span with class "blurred_answer", which has css styles: "color: transparent; text-shadow: 0 0 7px #777". Which in effect makes the text completely unreadable to humans. This is just one step above "color: #fff; background-color: #fff". Scummy.
I don't see missing or blurred text in your example,
http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo...
I checked with two different browsers (Opera and Firefox under Windows).
Could this mean that the Quora PR machine is up in full swing trying to undo damage (at least in the case of specific links that people cite)?
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#63If you would like try and get your account deleted, send something like this to privacy@quora.com
---------------------
Please can you delete my account.
I'm unhappy with your recent changes that would allow anyone to see the topics I follow and read.
My registered account is set up at
Please can you send me confirmation when you have done this. Many Thanks.
---------------------
I've fired an email off. Re: http://www.quora.com/How-do-I-delete-my-Quora-account
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#64Quora has gone the way of expert-sexchange, showing up in Google search results for interesting questions, but then overlaying/replacing most answers with blur and "sign up to read". Borderline SERP cloaking, to say the least.
I don't think that should be the case here. They have blurred answers enclosed in googleoff/googleon tags - which should make sure that they don't get indexed.
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#65If you would like try and get your account deleted, send something like this to privacy@quora.com --------------------- Please can you delete my account. I'm unhappy with your recent changes that would allow anyone to see the topics I follow and read. My registered account is set up at Please can you send me confirmation when you have done this. Many Thanks. --------------------- I've fired an email off. Re: http://w…
Here is my deletion request:
--
To: privacy@quora.com
Subject: Account deletion request
--
Hi Quora,
I am unhappy with the new Views feature, which is enabled by default. I do not wish to be part of a website that prevents its users from browsing pages anonymously, especially if it also requires them to use their full names.
Can you please delete my Quora account and all associated data as soon as possible, including my public and anonymous answers. Please also send me a confirmation email once this data has been erased.
My account page is located at www.quora.com/XXXXXXXXXXXX.
Regards,
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It looks like what they are doing are obfuscating with CSS. See for example: http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo... The answers are in a span with class "blurred_answer", which has css styles: "color: transparent; text-shadow: 0 0 7px #777". Which in effect makes the text completely unreadable to humans. This is just one step above "color: #fff; background-color: #fff". Scummy.
I don't see missing or blurred text in your example, http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo... I checked with two different browsers (Opera and Firefox under Windows). Could this mean that the Quora PR machine is up in full swing trying to undo damage (at least in the case of specific links that people cite)?
Interesting, it's not blurred for me either, although the other day I remember it was.
I tried this in Firefox and Chrome in both normal and Private/Incognito modes.
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#67Quora is in the same boat as FB (and to a certain extent, Twitter) They think that the experience of their largely 20-something staff is anything short of revolutionary. A bunch of kids running a digital media company with questionable morals and no connection to digital history. I will delete me Quora account. So far I have gotten little value from it. Time for it to have no data on me. Deactivated! Edit: I followed…
Don't forget /etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1 quora.com www.quora.com
I recommend using RequestPolicy for that. It's a lot more convenient and fine-grained.
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Quora has gone the way of expert-sexchange, showing up in Google search results for interesting questions, but then overlaying/replacing most answers with blur and "sign up to read". This shit doesn't fly with Google. Delivering different content to Google bot and the user coming through search makes Google looks like a fool, since the user is unable to find the content he searched for. That is why expert-sexchange…
It looks like what they are doing are obfuscating with CSS. See for example: http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo... The answers are in a span with class "blurred_answer", which has css styles: "color: transparent; text-shadow: 0 0 7px #777". Which in effect makes the text completely unreadable to humans. This is just one step above "color: #fff; background-color: #fff". Scummy.
Unreadable to humans with sight. Screen readers don't care! :-)
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
It looks like what they are doing are obfuscating with CSS. See for example: http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo... The answers are in a span with class "blurred_answer", which has css styles: "color: transparent; text-shadow: 0 0 7px #777". Which in effect makes the text completely unreadable to humans. This is just one step above "color: #fff; background-color: #fff". Scummy.
I don't see missing or blurred text in your example, http://www.quora.com/Bayesian-Inference/How-do-Bayesian-algo... I checked with two different browsers (Opera and Firefox under Windows). Could this mean that the Quora PR machine is up in full swing trying to undo damage (at least in the case of specific links that people cite)?
Did you scroll all the way down? Still blurry here: http://imgur.com/Bbifs (on google chrome)
Although I see in the html source there are some html comments "googleoff". I've never heard of those before.
I guess "googleon"'ing the first answer is enough to get google juice while staying within the letter of rules, it's still really spammy.
(Plus, how does that play with other search engines?)
Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't forget /etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1 quora.com www.quora.com
That's not really necessary, after you delete your account they'll block you from reading by themselves.
Of course you could trust them not to track you. But for the same reason you prefer your account to be deleted (not just inactivated), you might want to make sure on your side that they can't track you (not just taking their word for it).