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This is a bit f'd, Quora

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Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#211

Post by vijayr »

sdqali wrote: post #193
samstave wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my earlier posts about this. I deleted my account and asked for confirmation this was done, they stated it was - but all my info, comments, edits etc are all still there just simply no longer under my name!!

I have had the same experience. I got a mail from them saying they deleted my account, but the questions I posted are still there.

Just checked, you are right, my questions are still there. Their email said (exact words)

you should find yourself completely removed from the site

So in effect, our "info" is removed, but not our discussions/answers/questions?

Sorry, I should've checked before posting my above comment. It didn't even occur to me, that they might simply "de-link" my name, but keep the data as is.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#212

Post by mercutio2 »

wpietri wrote: post #175
samstave wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quora was founded by facebookers. People who actually have the worst fucking view online about what should be private and what should be public. People who have no digital-cultural compass because the only reference point they have is from working at Facebook, thus they think that "this is how it was thought of and done at Facebook - and Facebook is the most overly hyped company in history, so I must be a fucking gen…

I get your perspective, but I think Facebook is basically correct in the long term. Privacy is basically a historical accident belonging to the few hundred years in the west where transportation tech got ahead of information technology. An excellent read on the topic is David Brin's "The Transparent Hand". He basically makes the argument that we face one of two futures: either all of us know everybody's business or a…

I'm fairly confident you mean "The Transparent Society", which happens to be one of my all time favorites.

While its true Brin advocates giving up the illusion of privacy and (especially poignantly) that we should stop screwing around pretending identity keys are secrets, he does so in a framework that we should each individually own and control our identities, a position which seems to me antithetical to the noxious "we own your identity and can screw with you at will" approach Facebook has taken.

I hate that Facebook captured the social space.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#213

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

meritt wrote: post #111
cletus wrote: post #91

I can't help bit feel vindicated by moves like this because they're a sign that Quora isn't the Next Big Thing that many inside the bubble that is Silicon Valley seemed to think it is (eg [1]). Actually Quora is better than that (for me) in that it's a double hit on the hype on both Q&A and social. These kinds of moves: - requiring login to view content; - partially obscuring content on Google results to maximize sig…

Quora is simply turning into ExpertsExchange. I haven't found anything terrible insightful on Quora that I can't find at the top of an HN, Reddit or StackOverflow thread. Never quite understood the hype centered around it.

Never quite understood the hype centered around it.

It had tech celebrities. It was known as the place where famous silicon valley / tech people (from google to even microsoft) would answer questions in their gated community away from all the noise of Yahoo answers. Of course now Quora is just another Q&A site but back when it first started, I remember it well. It felt so exclusive. Registration wasn't open to the public. When a question was asked it was answered by people who mattered or were in the industry. The answers weren't nessessarily better but they felt like they mattered more because of who they came from.

They used celebrity status to promote the site, then opened it to the public. Before they had something special. Now it's just another Q&A site. Looking back in hindsight, it might have been better to keep the exclusive gated community feel where only people with credentials (startups) are allowed in.

How would the community keep itself exclusive? I thought about that last year and came up with this: http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/2011/02/invention-creating-and-...

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#214

Post by [deleted] »

meritt wrote: post #111
cletus wrote: post #91

I can't help bit feel vindicated by moves like this because they're a sign that Quora isn't the Next Big Thing that many inside the bubble that is Silicon Valley seemed to think it is (eg [1]). Actually Quora is better than that (for me) in that it's a double hit on the hype on both Q&A and social. These kinds of moves: - requiring login to view content; - partially obscuring content on Google results to maximize sig…

Quora is simply turning into ExpertsExchange. I haven't found anything terrible insightful on Quora that I can't find at the top of an HN, Reddit or StackOverflow thread. Never quite understood the hype centered around it.

[deleted]

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#215

Post by forensic »

adastra wrote: post #123
cletus wrote: post #91

I can't help bit feel vindicated by moves like this because they're a sign that Quora isn't the Next Big Thing that many inside the bubble that is Silicon Valley seemed to think it is (eg [1]). Actually Quora is better than that (for me) in that it's a double hit on the hype on both Q&A and social. These kinds of moves: - requiring login to view content; - partially obscuring content on Google results to maximize sig…

I think this graph by technology review says it all: http://www.technologyreview.com/graphiti/427964/is-facebook-... Looking at the value per user (shown as circle size), it's easy to see the huge difference between late 90's companies and the companies of today. Google and Facebook stand out, of course. Notice any outliers? There's at least one company that seems to be over-hyped... (Hint: it begins with Q, and ends…

why does that show that Quora is overhyped? your contention is just that the value per user could not possibly be as high as facebook/google etc?

Quora has pretty rich content and while they'll never have a userbase like facebook i don't see why the value per user number is wrong

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#216

Post by illuminate »

Karunamon wrote: post #202
mkolodny wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I upvoted your post for the same reason that you posted it - in hopes that Quora will decide not to kill privacy on the site. Now I kind of wish I hadn't since the sentiment on this thread is so anti-Quora. I love Quora, too. The amount of knowledge you gain from even a few minutes there is truly incredible. If HN'ers could get over the fact that Quora is a social site started by Facebookers, I truly believe they wou…

I don't have much to add other than "yeah, that", and the fact that the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old. There are a few people for various reasons who should stay the hell away from social media in all its forms. Okay, granted. For me, I don't see…

" the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old."

Who are you to tell any person that they're misprioritizing their personal information and the value of privacy?

YOU can do whatever you want, publish it to the ends of the earth, however we want this to be a choice. Not decided for us.

You can't wrap your head around why someone would not wish to share these things and offer an argument from ignorance, you do not understand why, nor are you sincerely interested in knowing why.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#217

Post by illuminate »

achompas wrote: post #207
Karunamon wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have much to add other than "yeah, that", and the fact that the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old. There are a few people for various reasons who should stay the hell away from social media in all its forms. Okay, granted. For me, I don't see…

Agreed 100%. HNers belly-ache about Quora all day, but there is an incredible amount of information on there. If you doubt me, just go look at the best answers under the Machine Learning topic. Part of Quora's value comes from identifying answerers' identities. HNers see this as a plight on the social web, yet they can (a) still turn off views in their settings at any time, and (b) use other forums with relaxed views…

"HNers belly-ache about Quora all day, but there is an incredible amount of information on there"

That's an exceptionally strange dichotomy, people are annoyed BECAUSE there is useful information there, and the company is enforcing mostly unnecessary "social" aspects to access the data. If the data was useless, why would anyone care when they change their policy to something aggressively anti-privacy?

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#218

Post by illuminate »

cheald wrote: post #101
rmc wrote: post #42

This is why you need Data Protection law (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Directive )

Legislating this sort of thing is killing a cockroach with a shotgun. I'm of the opinion that they should be free to be sleazy with their users, as long as I'm free to not be a user (and I no longer am). Quora is committing good-will suicide with this move, and them's the breaks, but a legal requirement preventing it is overkill.

"Legislating this sort of thing is killing a cockroach with a shotgun. I'm of the opinion that they should be free to be sleazy with their users"

Sounds like you have a high tolerance for living with cockroaches if you can just move from one apartment to another instead of rooting out the infestation.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#219

Post by wpietri »

mercutio2 wrote: post #212
wpietri wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your perspective, but I think Facebook is basically correct in the long term. Privacy is basically a historical accident belonging to the few hundred years in the west where transportation tech got ahead of information technology. An excellent read on the topic is David Brin's "The Transparent Hand". He basically makes the argument that we face one of two futures: either all of us know everybody's business or a…

I'm fairly confident you mean "The Transparent Society", which happens to be one of my all time favorites. While its true Brin advocates giving up the illusion of privacy and (especially poignantly) that we should stop screwing around pretending identity keys are secrets, he does so in a framework that we should each individually own and control our identities, a position which seems to me antithetical to the noxious…

Ah yes, thanks for the correction.

I agree with you about not liking Facebook's capture of the medium. But I think the main way people are fighting that now is by pretending that they can go back to the age of privacy. I wish we could get past that.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#220

Post by wpietri »

antidoh wrote: post #185
wpietri wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your perspective, but I think Facebook is basically correct in the long term. Privacy is basically a historical accident belonging to the few hundred years in the west where transportation tech got ahead of information technology. An excellent read on the topic is David Brin's "The Transparent Hand". He basically makes the argument that we face one of two futures: either all of us know everybody's business or a…

> Privacy is basically a historical accident belonging to the few hundred years in the west where transportation tech got ahead of information technology. I don't think privacy should be dictated by whatever is possible with technology, it should be explicitly decided by people. Whichever way they decide.

Sure, but the way it was historically decided by most people was a position of little or no privacy. In a small town, everybody knows everybody's business.

It's only urbanization, which only works because of good transportation, that made that untenable. So those of us who like privacy finally had some.

But information technology is making it possible for people to keep track of basically everybody they care to again. So we're going to go right back to what most people like, which is life as soap opera.

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