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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

#52

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?

you give them too many rights when you install their app

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

#53
Interesting. Such tricks is exactly why Stack Overflow originally went against Expert Exchange, promising never to hide user-contributed content, and explicitly licensing it as Creative Commons.

Quora is its content. Its content is user contributed. Hiding such content from other users is just plain evil.

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

#54
post #49

I think Adam's mistake here is to go too much by the numbers. He presumably has numbers that show that Quora ends up net ahead if they force people to create accounts to read answers. He grew Facebook very effectively by following the numbers. But he may not realize how different this case is from Facebook's. It may well be that for a site like Quora, at this stage in its life, users are not all equal. It may be a mi…

I'm a pretty heavy user of Quora, and I have been "trained" the same way, at least on mobile.

When I click on a Quora link inside FB app or whatever, it takes me to iTunes to re-download the Quora app. Or, I click in Twitter, and it doesn't have my credentials, so same problem as you.

It also keeps me from posting links to Quora content anywhere else.

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

#55
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

I usually use the site's own domain -- so a fake account on quora gets an @quora.com domain.

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

#56
post #50
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like expert sex change, Quora has a way to see the answers without signing in (remember scrolling to the bottom?). Click the datestamp at the bottom of a blurred answer to see it. As a long-time Quora user, it disappoints me that the content I donate is held ransom in an attempt at "growth hacking".

As a long-time Quora user I actually like this and it is one of the main reasons I share so freely on Quora. If I knew anybody could read anything I write via a Google search, I would be much more guarded - and if they suddenly stopped this practice I would put serious thought to deleting all of my answers. But the way they do it preserves a good deal of anonymity. I don't know if that is their intent, but it's the r…

It doesn't work like that though. Quora still wants Google to see the content for SEO. Google still indexes your answers: https://www.google.ca/search?q=site%3Awww.quora.com%2FWillia...

(Quora does have a setting to hide your name from search engines for this reason though)

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

#57

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.

Agreed. My favorite trick? I was going to sign up for a Quora account today, finally knuckling under to the stupid ExpertsExchange fuzzing crap. So I click "Sign Up With Google" (because the register page on the answer page doesn't show Twitter). They demand permission to "manage my contacts". This is a throwaway email, so I say sure, okay.

They go back to the registration screen and still want an email and password just for their special snowflake site.

I am forced to believe that the only reason for the misleading and, frankly, fucking dishonest path through my social media connections is to have more names to potentially spam in the future. Fortunately they won't get such from Dick Wickerson, Completely Fake Account.

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

#58
post #17

Quora is irritating in this respect; they're always so pushy . They keep sending me weekly digest emails even after I asked them not to and repeatedly tried to unsubscribe. As it happens, I then started reading them and found them quite interesting, so I guess it worked -- but I still resent the tactics used.

I always mark such messages as spam.

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

#59
post #19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change user agent to crawl as a mobile browser.

That wouldn't help if a site served different content to the google block of ip addresses

This is cloaking and will get you in big trouble.

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

#60
post #53

Interesting. Such tricks is exactly why Stack Overflow originally went against Expert Exchange, promising never to hide user-contributed content, and explicitly licensing it as Creative Commons. Quora is its content. Its content is user contributed. Hiding such content from other users is just plain evil.

StackOverflow does modify user-contributed content and have very serious moderators issues.

Which is why I'm sure there's going to be something new coming along one of these days: something where users are in control of what they post (e.g. not a wiki unless the user who did post does accept himself others' edits).

Collaborating to answer questions is fine. But modifying and closing questions artificially (due to very serious moderators issues) isn't acceptable either.

So I'm waiting for the next big thing and I'm sure it shall come.

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