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Scribd and Quora considered harmful

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Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#111

Post by dredmorbius »

chronomex wrote: post #95
spindritf wrote: post #16

What is a good alternative to Scribd? One that allows viewers to download the source file without too much hassle and displays the text properly? Google Drive?

I'm very fond of the Internet Archive's book viewer: https://archive.org/details/etsi_ts_100_940_v07.08.00

It's their own project, open source, and available for (and used by) other projects: https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader

And yes, it's absolutely fucking awesome. Better than any book reader, online or off, anywhere.

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#112

Post by dredmorbius »

Agree completely and YC should disown (and stop linking) both sites.

I've found some use pulling content from Scribd using text-mode browsers, but even that is exceedingly painful.

My policy is to ignore both sites, and I may well simply block the domains to avoid frustrations.

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#113

Post by [deleted] »

hollerith wrote: post #84
gwern wrote: post #78

For avoiding using Scribd for public PDF hosting, I've been looking at http://pdf.yt/ (I keep wondering when the powers that be at HN will finally remove the Scribd autolinks on submissions, and keep being disappointed.)

>I keep wondering when the powers that be at HN will finally remove the Scribd autolinks YC owns part of Scribd. (Scribd took part in YC S06.)

[deleted]

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#115

Post by gergles »

Karunamon wrote: post #110
shadowfox wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The screenshot I linked should be enough to immediately disprove any accusations of "spam". Really? You have to uncheck something like 20 checkboxes to avoid spam. And they used to have a tendency to re-enable all of them each time they add a new option; so you had to repeat the process on and off. (Hopefully that last bit has tapered down)

Your spam is someone else's notification from a service they use. Can we stop torturing the definition of words, please? Spam is unsolicited commercial email. A service you registered for emailing you when one of your questions is answered or commented on, or a digest of interesting questions from the week, and so on is not spam by any possible definition. Now, where have I seen that behavior before? Is this spam too…

A service emailing me anything I did not explicitly ask it to is sending me spam - unsolicited commercial email - by your own definition. Just because you find the spam useful doesn't mean it isn't spam.

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#116

Post by Karunamon »

gergles wrote: post #115
Karunamon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your spam is someone else's notification from a service they use. Can we stop torturing the definition of words, please? Spam is unsolicited commercial email. A service you registered for emailing you when one of your questions is answered or commented on, or a digest of interesting questions from the week, and so on is not spam by any possible definition. Now, where have I seen that behavior before? Is this spam too…

A service emailing me anything I did not explicitly ask it to is sending me spam - unsolicited commercial email - by your own definition. Just because you find the spam useful doesn't mean it isn't spam.

By that definition, Stack Overflow's weekly email is "spam". You signed up for it the same way you signed up for Quora.

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#117

Post by waqf »

ecesena wrote: post #35

My opinion on Quora is totally different (note, I have no interest, nor I think my point of view is right or wrong, simply different). I don't 100% support the idea of putting a barrier before content, but I understand their need to grow in terms of registered users (i.e. users for whom they have email or social account). It's a mere strategy for fast growing, a sort of compromise that they chose to do. I don't see t…

I don't 100% support the idea of robbing banks, but I understand the need to obtain money quickly. It's a mere strategy for fast profits, a sort of compromise that the defendant chose to do. My hope is that this will just be their initial strategy for acquiring money, Your Honor.

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#118

Post by rtpg »

bsenftner wrote: post #10

Quora is dangerously close to being a nuisance with all the pointless emails they send. I think I browsed the site a half dozen times max, and contributed to two-three questions. Now I get daily emails about distant friends activity on Quora. LinkedIn this the only site I've been tricked into joining that is worse with their spammy emails.

I get "things you might be interested" emails from Quora all the time. The thing is, they usually are interesting questions/answers (probably helped by all the things I have clicked on in the past)

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#119

Post by hendi_ »

rrggrr wrote: post #54

Numerous Scribd uploads, which we needed for our business, were fine one day and irretrievable the next. The response from tech support was to re-upload the content, which wasn't possible. Haven't left, yet, because I'm not sure where else to go to host thousands of documents quickly.

I'm working on an alternative; MVP already, now working on some more features. Would you mind sending me an email to discuss what you need (email in profile)? If what we have already suits you I'd love to give you access to our system :)

Re: Scribd and Quora considered harmful

#120

Post by ecesena »

waqf wrote: post #117
ecesena wrote: post #35

My opinion on Quora is totally different (note, I have no interest, nor I think my point of view is right or wrong, simply different). I don't 100% support the idea of putting a barrier before content, but I understand their need to grow in terms of registered users (i.e. users for whom they have email or social account). It's a mere strategy for fast growing, a sort of compromise that they chose to do. I don't see t…

I don't 100% support the idea of robbing banks, but I understand the need to obtain money quickly. It's a mere strategy for fast profits, a sort of compromise that the defendant chose to do. My hope is that this will just be their initial strategy for acquiring money, Your Honor.

:) I see your point and I described what I think is the rationale behind. Yet, I believe there's a pretty big gap between hiding some content (that, btw, Quora owns) and robbing a bank. I believe the comparison between hiding content and creating fake one is more fair...
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