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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

#131

Post by joering2 »

cantrevealname wrote: post #44
monsterix wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Their policy to force your true_full_name is an absolute no-go for many users. A friend of mine from south India has a very lengthy name. Few parts of his name are direct reference to his ancestors and the villages they come from. Sort of like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._D._Deve_Gowda where H. D. parts of his name are references to ancestry, places etc. My friend was denied permission to use Quo…

My friend was denied permission to use Quora for not revealing his ancestor name. Could you explain how it happened in this specific case, since it sounds like the name that your friend gave appeared to be real. That it, it wasn't something like "Fake Name" or "Bite Me", so how did Quora know? And, in general, could someone explain how the likes of Quora and Facebook decide that a name isn't "real"? Does someone at Q…

I was contacted by Quora 2 days after creating an account. They thought "Ring" was a joke.

OT: my favorite "delete your account" is at buy dot com. At least couple months ago, there was no option to do so, so I called them and someone told me: just add "DELETE" in front of your account; this way you wont be able to login to it anymore.

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

#133

Post by kmfrk »

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?

Deactivation preserves data.

Deletion erases data.

People usually shut down profiles for privacy reasons, so deactivation will rarely be of any use to them; they are better off trying to manually delete their content, while they still have a semblance of write access in that regard.

Deactivation works in some instances on a hypothetical level, but people tend to leave a service, because they don't trust it, which leaves that option moot.

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

#134

Post by justincormack »

joering2 wrote: post #131
cantrevealname wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend was denied permission to use Quora for not revealing his ancestor name. Could you explain how it happened in this specific case, since it sounds like the name that your friend gave appeared to be real. That it, it wasn't something like "Fake Name" or "Bite Me", so how did Quora know? And, in general, could someone explain how the likes of Quora and Facebook decide that a name isn't "real"? Does someone at Q…

I was contacted by Quora 2 days after creating an account. They thought "Ring" was a joke. OT: my favorite "delete your account" is at buy dot com. At least couple months ago, there was no option to do so, so I called them and someone told me: just add "DELETE" in front of your account; this way you wont be able to login to it anymore.

I am sure changing your name to 'DROP TABLE users; works fine too in that case...

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

#135

Post by jmsduran »

Although I don't have a Quora account, I definitely won't be signing up for one after hearing this news.

I dislike the idea of passively sharing information. In my opinion, sharing should be a conscious decision the user makes, not something that the user is tricked or forced into.

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

#136

Post by mikebracco »

samstave wrote: post #20
mikebracco wrote: post #8

Well as Eric Schmidt said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place." ;) http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/01/21/top-10-the-quotable-e...

I am not sure I follow your logic here... Either you are being sarcastic, or idiotic. Please tel me which one.

I was being sarcastic here.

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

#137

Post by mikebracco »

mikebracco wrote: post #8

Well as Eric Schmidt said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place." ;) http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/01/21/top-10-the-quotable-e...

I was being sarcastic people.

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

#138

Post by oth3r »

One thing that stuck out to me in the article is the whole concept of "anonymous reading."

When did the need to make the distinction of anonymous vs non-anonymous reading arise? Anonymity was assumed for something as simple as picking up a book or a newspaper. It sounds as awkward and unnatural to me as taking an "anonymous shower" or anonymously picking my nose. Pretty scary that we're headed down this path where fewer and fewer things are private.

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

#139

Post by IsaacL »

samstave wrote: post #9

Quora 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…

I have to take the minority position and stand up for Quora here. I'm a huge fan of the service, and though I agree this latest move was a mis-step, I remain a loyal Quora user.

Unlike you, I've gained a ton of value from it. Unlike the trivial discussions or content spam posted on Facebook or Twitter, Quora features tons of interesting conversations. The closest comparison to it might actually be Wikipedia, at least in terms of general scale of ambition.

It's the one online community I've found that I think is better than Hacker News (though admittedly the quality of discussing has slid as the audience has grown wider). There's few other places where a question about politics might be answered by a Washington insider, or a question about startups might be answered by a top name Valley VC, or a question about snipers answered by an actual sniper.

Their real name policy has generally been fairly sensibly and sensitively implemented (http://www.quora.com/Why-has-there-been-an-outcry-against-re...) - they've always allowed anonymous posting, and they've been more flexible on the definition of "real name", than, say, G+. For example, danah boyd is able to post with the legal, lowercase form of her name.

Whether they'll begin bowing to advertisers once they need to monetise of course remains an open question -- but I'm hoping they can find alternative revenue streams. For example, a lot of consultants post answers on there to gain clients -- that's an example of the concrete monetary value Quora creates, and if they can capture some of that value they can build a great company without stooping to Facebook-style data mining controversies.

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