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Why Quora Won't Scale

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Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#51

Post by intellegacy »

mayanksinghal wrote: post #44
intellegacy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is definitely overlap, which is why I mentioned reddit :) Overlap doesn't have to be a bad thing. Reddit is one my favorite sites. users can visit reddit as well as visit pozium. Pozium wouldn't be link-based. Users would publish essays or insights or ask questions. Pozium is based around concepts. Not article links. Sorry I didn't want to go into pozium on HN. I linked to a more articulate description of the v…

> But then from where did I get that impression that overall the site just felt too serious for me? I don't think they're managing the user experience very well. I am sorry but that is exactly the kind of overall experience that I would like on Quora. For everything pun-ny and funny, I can visit the dozens of forums that are out there already, like Reddit for example. Unfortunately, for me at least, I am unable to fi…

I apologize for that.

I think that Quora obviously is loved by many, otherwise it wouldn't have grown to the size it did. But for every wonderful experience you have, I can point to others who've had a poor one. Can we agree that both of us could be right?

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#52

Post by zby »

Why you cannot link to Quora answers? There seems to be a way to 'include' them by the way of some javascript - but I am way more careful when pasting javascript then when just using the anchor tag.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#53

Post by xfernandox »

intellegacy wrote: post #26

Sigh. Here we go - bring it on Quorans... I wanted to like Quora. I really did. Theoretically, Quora should be a wet dream for me: insightful discussions, check. Answers from bright people, check. A place to learn, to read, to spend hours on soaking in information, check. I never could have guessed that spending time on Quora would turn out to be more of a nightmare. As the article points out, Quora is a dictatorship…

I completely agree, if your point of view or style of reply doesn't fit into the Quora mindset, it'll get downvoted or blocked. It seems they don't really like when you don't think like them.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#54

Post by mayanksinghal »

intellegacy wrote: post #51
mayanksinghal wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But then from where did I get that impression that overall the site just felt too serious for me? I don't think they're managing the user experience very well. I am sorry but that is exactly the kind of overall experience that I would like on Quora. For everything pun-ny and funny, I can visit the dozens of forums that are out there already, like Reddit for example. Unfortunately, for me at least, I am unable to fi…

I apologize for that. I think that Quora obviously is loved by many, otherwise it wouldn't have grown to the size it did. But for every wonderful experience you have, I can point to others who've had a poor one. Can we agree that both of us could be right?

I can say this for, say Reddit, as well. My point is that these are anecdotes.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#55

Post by littlegiantcap »

TillE wrote: post #30
starpilot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quora is just so much better than Ask MetaFilter, Reddit's Q&A/advice subreddits (/r/askreddit, /r/answers, /r/doesanybodyelse etc.), or (dare I say it) Yahoo Answers for nontrivial, factual answers dependent on expertise. Quora is for people who benefit from or enjoy such questions and answers. The longtime existence of all these Q&A communities shows that there is a market for it. There's the most overlap with Ask…

I have a lot of bad things to say about Reddit, but certain focused subreddits are excellent for getting good answers from experts. AskHistorians and AskScience are among the best available forums of their kind on the internet.

/r/startups /r/entrepreneur among others are excellent as well.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#56

Post by richardjordan »

yesimahuman wrote: post #40
starpilot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quora is just so much better than Ask MetaFilter, Reddit's Q&A/advice subreddits (/r/askreddit, /r/answers, /r/doesanybodyelse etc.), or (dare I say it) Yahoo Answers for nontrivial, factual answers dependent on expertise. Quora is for people who benefit from or enjoy such questions and answers. The longtime existence of all these Q&A communities shows that there is a market for it. There's the most overlap with Ask…

Part of my reluctance to use it is i'm not sure it's ever going to give the investors the return they demand, and I don't see it surviving or staying wholesome in the process.

This is increasingly my bar for participating in crowdsourced or user generated content based startups. How much is my investment of time and energy going to be squandered when they don't make it; how likely are they to make it.

I'm still pissed off at all the DailyBooth pictures just stuck in limbo because the management team lost interest post acqui-hire and haven't done anything to help folks get their data - valuable pictures capturing moments in time in some cases - back from the zombie company.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#57

Post by richardjordan »

freework wrote: post #39

This article applies to just about every single internet discussion community I've ever been a part of since I started using the internet back in 1999. First, a community is founded with a small handful of users. Those small handful of users all know the topic well, so good discussion arises. Those small number of users all know each other, and form a bond. Once word gets out that the community is a place where high…

Yup you nailed it. I've been doing online communities since 1990 in one shape or another. This pattern happens in them all. It is hard for owners / managers of such communities to avoid this.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#58

Post by adrianhoward »

mcphilip wrote: post #20

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 inf…

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?

Have some reasons :-)

* Many people like helping people and answering there questions. Techie folk have hackernews and stackexchange and perlmonks and whatever. This is a place for everybody else.

* It's not subject-specific which makes it more attractive and useful to people who have expertise in multiple areas

* The combination of the multiple-areas-of-expertise and the social-network stuff means that I can very easily come across fun/interesting stuff

* It's fairly open and friendly compared to some Q&A communities. My impression has been that, because it's not subject specific folk, seem to give greater leeway on "dumb" questions that would be given on a narrow "expert" forum.

* I have had work via Quora. Because it covers all areas of expertise, and gives some kind of levelling information on expertise, it is a market to some extent. Folk who need - for example - expertise if folk who do agile/ux transitions and integrations it's pretty easy to find the people who answer questions around that topic. And hire 'em.

I've no idea if they have a sane business model. The hiding answers thang is icky. You may be better served by other communities for the stuff that you're interested in. But I do think there are lots of reasons for folk to use the current site, and those people aren't well served by any other Q&A service that I've played with.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#59

Post by dasil003 »

I'm still on the fence about Quora. It has some of the best quality content anywhere according to my interests, but I'm naturally distrustful of Facebook mafia since I care about privacy and I find the auto-sharing stuff extremely irritating.

But as to the elitist / insider's club / groupthink accusations, my inclination is to ask what the alternative is? I mean if you don't impose some form of social norms that someone (I'm not personally passing a judgement) will interpret as elitism then inevitably you will face the Eternal September which spirals out of control and leads to evaporative cooling as you grow. I suppose they could be nicer about it, but it's better to please the people who provide value than to try to make everyone happy and eventually degrade into Yahoo! Answers.

Re: Why Quora Won't Scale

#60

Post by davidgerard »

This article is terrible. It starts with actual news and then descends into complaints about everything Clay Shirky talked about in A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy, http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html , i.e. it's just like every computer network social space I've seen since 1988.
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