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I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

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Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#31

I just can't understand why Quora continues ... in an existential sense (why does it exist). I also find it odd when anyone in this sort of community has anything but derision for it. They want to play this identity game and control their users like little children. It's just too much. At least Experts Exchange, in the old days at least, didn't basically ask me for my social security number to figure out why my winmo…

Who would have thought we'd be nostalgic for Experts Exchange.

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#32

Once Quora started blurring answers like Experts Exchange, I had no use for it. You're holding user-contributed content hostage? Go away. Complaining about usability on Quora is like complaining about not having privacy on Facebook.

I forgot about Experts Exchange! I used to love them, but when they broke their shit all I had was a medley of frustration and rage every time I bumped into their site until they went away. Shame they screwed up so badly.

On a side note, what does Quora achieve by forcing people to view the data using a native app rather than through the browser? It seems a little ... pointless, or perhaps I'm being unduly myopic with regards to their strategy.

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#33
post #15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would google determine that the content being served to other users differ from what the crawlers see?

The big fish (experts exchange etc...) are big enough to be caught manually. Programatically they can crawl with a typical browser user agent, from a netblock not registered to google nor announced by their ASes. They'd need to account for the dynamic nature of sites to determine if the difference between different crawls is a sign of trouble, but as luck have it they're already in the business of algorithms and arch…

I'm sure they'd do it algorithmically both for elegance and legal liability reasons. It'd be done in an identical fashion to the Panda update. Use the big fish to identify techniques you can build rules around and then make sure your arbitrary penalty doesn't affect too many innocents too much before you push it live.

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#34
I completely agree with the article.

Apps are just fancy web bookmarks with some advanced abilities (interruptions, native code, state). I prefer to have as little apps as I can get away, so anything that can be viewed in a browser, I view in a browser.

I just want to know if you can get around this forced solution by picking "Request Desktop Site" in Chrome for iOS?

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#35
post #26

Just opened Quora to see if my user was still there: User name: Alsfkj Alskfjaslkfj E-mail Quora probably sends weekly e-mails: alsfkj@x.com (sorry if any of you owns x.com)

This is a good place to use alsfkj@example.com

With example.com (which cannot be registered) you know you are not potentially smacking around the domain of a poor company

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#37
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would google determine that the content being served to other users differ from what the crawlers see?

Probably if enough people report them for cloaking: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreportform?hl=en

Thanks for the tip, I just filed a report.

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#38
post #26

Just opened Quora to see if my user was still there: User name: Alsfkj Alskfjaslkfj E-mail Quora probably sends weekly e-mails: alsfkj@x.com (sorry if any of you owns x.com)

This is a good place to use alsfkj@example.com With example.com (which cannot be registered) you know you are not potentially smacking around the domain of a poor company

eBay is not exactly a poor company (current owners of x.com for some completely bizarre reason)

Re: I'd like to use the web my way, thank you very much Quora

#40

I just can't understand why Quora continues ... in an existential sense (why does it exist). I also find it odd when anyone in this sort of community has anything but derision for it. They want to play this identity game and control their users like little children. It's just too much. At least Experts Exchange, in the old days at least, didn't basically ask me for my social security number to figure out why my winmo…

Who would have thought we'd be nostalgic for Experts Exchange.

At least EE had the funny mis-pronunciation -- "expert sex change" going for it.
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