Why Quora Won't Scale • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#11

Post by jcfrei » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 9:40 PM UTC

>The Spiral of Silence

I like the theory described by the spiral of silence and it somehow seems relevant to the continuing discussion about HNs apparent demise (in the eyes of some). it seems like quora successfully implemented a system, that leaves a community largely true to it's original state, by giving dominant admins/moderators the tools to block unwanted content and to promote their own views. left aside whether this fosters better or worse answers, it apparently doesn't help growing a noticeable community and I'm glad that HN didn't go that same way.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#12

Post by kstenerud » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 9:42 PM UTC

andrewcooke wrote: post #5

webwanderings wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quora has been a fine weekly newsletter. So what if most often you see a 25 year old millionaire against another 25 year old millionaire going about their gripe and appreciation of newly acquired money! As a weekly email newsletter, I get nicely curated content without participating a minute of my time at the site.

personally, i wish they would follow the legal guidelines for unsubscription that were posted here a few days ago. i've tried several times to unsubscribe, and failed.

Remember to mark the emails as spam.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#13

Post by kcl » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 9:48 PM UTC

This article is false. (Regardless of whether Quora will or will not grow.)

Many of the arguments should have been tested against Facebook: elitism didn't slow the spread of Facebook. In fact, it was likely a main driver of growth in the world's most popular website. It's not surprising Quora has been modeled after Facebook since Quora is made up of early Facebook alumni.

Many of the rest of the arguments apply to discussion websites in general. If you consider Wikipedia, for instance, scaling doesn't seem to be a problem. Taking Wikipedia is a good idea, since, despite what's been said, Quora is or should be a direct competitor to Wikipedia.

At a descriptive level, Quora isn't represented accurately.

Judging from the slant of the article, it seems the author is reacting to a bad experience on the site.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#14

Post by tbatterii » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 9:51 PM UTC

wilfra wrote: post #10

Sounds like the author got banned for excessive complaining on Quora and is exceptionally butthurt. I'm a hard core Quora addict and have never encountered most of the things in this post. He's way off about the "elite". Yes there are people who get tons of upvotes and have huge followings but in every case I've seen it's because they are well known off of Quora or they give consistently amazing answers, often both.…

That is the exact impression i got right down to "butt-hurt". I don't use quora myself, but I do find it annoying when people with blogs project their standards on someone else's creation.

It's like a more articulate "GUYZ Y THE DOWN VOTEZ??!!??"

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#15

Post by ericdykstra » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 9:52 PM UTC

wilfra wrote: post #10

Sounds like the author got banned for excessive complaining on Quora and is exceptionally butthurt. I'm a hard core Quora addict and have never encountered most of the things in this post. He's way off about the "elite". Yes there are people who get tons of upvotes and have huge followings but in every case I've seen it's because they are well known off of Quora or they give consistently amazing answers, often both.…

Spot on. Maybe the author got banned, maybe the author just wanted to write an inciteful piece that would get a lot of pageviews. Either way, what's described in the article is nothing like my experience with Quora over the past year+

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#16

Post by desbest » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 9:59 PM UTC

kcl wrote: post #13

This article is false. (Regardless of whether Quora will or will not grow.) Many of the arguments should have been tested against Facebook: elitism didn't slow the spread of Facebook. In fact, it was likely a main driver of growth in the world's most popular website. It's not surprising Quora has been modeled after Facebook since Quora is made up of early Facebook alumni. Many of the rest of the arguments apply to di…

The difference between Quora and Facebook, is that me and my friends can upload photos of ourselves drunk and post wall posts of us swearing, and Facebook will be always a good product to the entire community despite this.

With Quora, the community isn't tied down to who you are friends with. There are no friend requests. On Quora, everyone is technically your "friend".

So with that said, it is not just enough to allow people to behave as bad as they want on Quora. If that happened, people would leave in disgust. If I was posting racist things on Facebook, only my friends would know and you would still be using Facebook regardless. On Quora it's not like that.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#17

Post by mikeryan » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 10:06 PM UTC

kcl wrote: post #13

This article is false. (Regardless of whether Quora will or will not grow.) Many of the arguments should have been tested against Facebook: elitism didn't slow the spread of Facebook. In fact, it was likely a main driver of growth in the world's most popular website. It's not surprising Quora has been modeled after Facebook since Quora is made up of early Facebook alumni. Many of the rest of the arguments apply to di…

Many of the arguments should have been tested against Facebook: elitism didn't slow the spread of Facebook

Facebook wasn't elitist. It was exclusive. Its a pretty significant difference.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#18

Post by Noldorin » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 10:15 PM UTC

wilfra wrote: post #10

Sounds like the author got banned for excessive complaining on Quora and is exceptionally butthurt. I'm a hard core Quora addict and have never encountered most of the things in this post. He's way off about the "elite". Yes there are people who get tons of upvotes and have huge followings but in every case I've seen it's because they are well known off of Quora or they give consistently amazing answers, often both.…

And clearly you are sufficiently biased, likewise, that your opinion must be irrational. Oh no, wait, we've just fallen into several logical fallacies.

Next time, please switch on your brain before posting.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#19

Post by Noldorin » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 10:20 PM UTC

kcl wrote: post #13

This article is false. (Regardless of whether Quora will or will not grow.) Many of the arguments should have been tested against Facebook: elitism didn't slow the spread of Facebook. In fact, it was likely a main driver of growth in the world's most popular website. It's not surprising Quora has been modeled after Facebook since Quora is made up of early Facebook alumni. Many of the rest of the arguments apply to di…

A subjective article cannot be false, silly person. It is evidently well-research and supported by evidence; that's as much as one can ask. You may disagree with it's stance, but that's another point. Get over it.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#20

Post by mcphilip » Thu, Sep 13, 2012, 10:21 PM UTC

I'm still unable to get a clear answer to the basic question "Why should I use Quora?"

I work at a startup in Austin, I read HN daily, I enjoy news about SV startups, etc. Still, I haven't found a compelling reason to spend any substantial time on Quora. I'm happy to read a particularly insightful answer when I see the occasional link pop up on another site, but that doesn't make me want to search Quora for other information.

I wonder if my disinterest in Quora is common among developers outside of SV?

If I, a tech savvy developer at a startup, don't find the idea of Quora particularly interesting, why would Average Joe be interested in joining the community?