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Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

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Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#91

Post by Auguste »

hk__2 wrote: post #85
chrisacky wrote: post #63

If 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…

Why didn't you deactivated the feature?

In my opinion, it's not enough. It should not be enabled by default, and it should not exist at all. Services like Quora should not introduce changes that compromise the privacy of accounts that already exist. If I hadn't seen this submission on Hacker News, I wouldn't have known about the change.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#92

Post by eli »

cantrevealname wrote: post #86
0x0 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?)

Yes, you're right, I can see the blurring in certain cases now. If I go to the link you cited directly it is not blurred. But I if search for "How do Bayesian algorithms work" in Google, then click the link that Google finds, then it is blurred. Once you get the blurred Quora page, then even going to the link directly will get you a blurred page. If you delete all the Quora cookies, then it'll be back to being readab…

IIRC, https sites do not send referer, so that makes sense.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#93

Post by pirateking »

chrisacky wrote: post #63

If 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…

Thanks for the tip. Here is my request:

---------------------

Quora,

Your lack of respect for privacy is unfortunate.

Delete my account and all associated data immediately, and send me a confirmation email once this is done.

My account: www.quora.com/xxxxx

- xxxxx

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#94

Post by 0x0 »

eli wrote: post #92
cantrevealname wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you're right, I can see the blurring in certain cases now. If I go to the link you cited directly it is not blurred. But I if search for "How do Bayesian algorithms work" in Google, then click the link that Google finds, then it is blurred. Once you get the blurred Quora page, then even going to the link directly will get you a blurred page. If you delete all the Quora cookies, then it'll be back to being readab…

IIRC, https sites do not send referer, so that makes sense.

https sites sends referers only to other https sites (even crossdomain), but not when navigating from https to http.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#95

Post by andrewingram »

bornhuetter wrote: post #82
andrewingram wrote: post #53

Early last year, when I was starting to get into using Quora, I stopped using it abruptly when I realised how limited their privacy features are. Basically, I wanted to contribute quite heavily to the Depression topic. I'm a sufferer and I wanted to be able to help other people. But on Quora you have a choice of answering a question either Anonymously or as yourself, the problem with answering as yourself is that all…

> I felt like I couldn't make an valuable contribution if I was hiding behind anonymity each time. Why is that?

Because I feel part of being a community member is having a recognisable name, even if it's just a pseudonym, so just being "Anonymous" isn't sufficient for me.

Names are important because they allow you to build reputation (ignoring actual reputation algorithms for now). So if a particular question comes up, a user might think "I wonder what Joey Joe Joe thinks about this" or "Let's see what AmazingFace82's answer to this question is".

In the case of any community that's fundamentally about self-improvement, for example the Depression topic, it's useful to see how an individual's contributions change over time. Do they become more positive? What solutions did they try, which ones were most effective?

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#96

Post by gojomo »

krelian wrote: post #90

I was curious so I just had a look with my (fake name) account and the option called "Allow others to see what content I've viewed in feed" was set at "No". I don't recall ever playing with that setting so this may be a recent change on their part to avoid the backlash.

Mine was also 'No', but then I visited the homepage (http://www.quora.com) and closed the notice there about the new Views feature... which toggled the setting to 'Yes', without any message to that effect.

So try viewing the homepage and then check the setting, or closing the fewture notification... it may then be 'Yes'.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#97

Post by mozan_sykol »

bobds wrote: post #57
irahul wrote: post #37

Earlier 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…

> This shit doesn't fly with Google. Not only does this shit fly but Google are doing it on their own websites. EDIT: I'm guessing you don't believe me. Try clicking on a Google Groups link. This article has another example: http://www.seobook.com/googles-youtube-caught-cloaking-spam-... Google repeatedly violates the "guidelines" they try to force on other webmasters.

Correct. A lot of people blindly believe that Google can do no evil - I used to be one of them. But now I have come to realize that given that they are a public company, they will do whatever pleases their shareholders.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#98

Post by irahul »

bobds wrote: post #57
irahul wrote: post #37

Earlier 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…

> This shit doesn't fly with Google. Not only does this shit fly but Google are doing it on their own websites. EDIT: I'm guessing you don't believe me. Try clicking on a Google Groups link. This article has another example: http://www.seobook.com/googles-youtube-caught-cloaking-spam-... Google repeatedly violates the "guidelines" they try to force on other webmasters.

> Not only does this shit fly but Google are doing it on their own websites.

I am not claiming Google is benevolent. As I mentioned above, if a user searches for "rails select in query" and the user clicks on experts-exchange result summary showing partial answer only to be taken to the page where answers are hidden, the user failed to find something on Google. May be he will blame experts-exchange, but he will blame Google as well.

> EDIT: I'm guessing you don't believe me.

I am guessing you were downvoted. I didn't downvote you. If fact, you can't downvote immediate replies to your post. Since you directly replied to my post, the downvote link doesn't appear for me for your reply.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#99

Post by bornhuetter »

andrewingram wrote: post #95
bornhuetter wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I felt like I couldn't make an valuable contribution if I was hiding behind anonymity each time. Why is that?

Because I feel part of being a community member is having a recognisable name, even if it's just a pseudonym, so just being "Anonymous" isn't sufficient for me. Names are important because they allow you to build reputation (ignoring actual reputation algorithms for now). So if a particular question comes up, a user might think "I wonder what Joey Joe Joe thinks about this" or "Let's see what AmazingFace82's answer t…

I think anonymous discussion is still valuable, but I agree that it's often much less valuable when you can't see the individual's comment history.

In my view pseudonymity is usually the best solution - with real names or complete anonymity only occasionally being preferable.

Re: Thanks to Quora, now you can’t read anonymously

#100

Post by johnchristopher »

Not entirely unrelated: today on Facebook I noticed there are groups I can't browse without the group creator knowing which posts I have seen and which posts I haven't.

https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=409719555736128&in_co...

It might not be new but it was the first time I noticed it (and I immediately left the group without thinking about it for even one second).

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