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The downfall of Quora (2013)

thegoodones.quora.com

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The downfall of Quora (2013)

#1

Post by anbala »

This is the email circulating the Valley. The high profile venture capitalist's name has been redacted along with that of the recipient.

February 1, 2013

[name redacted],

Since you asked what I think about Quora and its latest pivot, here's my answer. It's probably far more than you expected but bear with me. From its early days the big question about this site has been "can an almost unlimited supply of SiliconValley cash and hype turn a mediocre idea into a success?"

The downfall of Quora (2013)
thegoodones.quora.com

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#2

Post by Karunamon »

This struck me as more representative of other sites. Like, the one we're on now:

The No Humor Rule: Humor is a de facto taboo on Quora. While the occasional demonstration of witwill evoke no more than a scowl and shake of the head from the community, more regular use will draw a barrage of down votes and risk the possibility of banishment. The staff attempts to deny that this istrue but fails to convince anyone. Many Quorans simply don't appreciate humor and will automatically down vote any post that contains it.

s/quora/HN/g

That said, the author of this piece tries really, really hard to bash on Quora for their login policy. You have to be logged in to contribute or to read.

Honestly? I think they're reading far too much into that.

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#3

Post by tokenadult »

From the article kindly submitted here: "Quora's philosophy can be summed up as why should the serfs get a share if they were dumb enough to work for free in the first place?"

That's a good question. What is the incentive to be a content creator on Quora?

AFTER EDIT: Aside about the other comments wondering if Hacker News has a no-humor rule. I find comments from time to time on Hacker News that are laugh-out-loud funny. I'll link to two examples to show what I mean, after noting that a good humorous comment on Hacker News is still the same thing as a good nonhumorous comment on Hacker News: a comment that is "thoughtful" both in the sense of being civil and in the sense of providing food for thought in the context of the discussion thread. One recent Hacker News comment that I thought was so funny, and so thoughtful, that I shared it on my Facebook wall (where it was liked by several of my friends) was by patio11 about Yahoo's business plans after the Alibaba IPO.[1] A much older comment that I cherish from years ago was about how lifestyles in Japan changed after the "lost decade" of meager economic growth in the 1990s.[2] You can be humorous on Hacker News and get upvotes (evidently) if you embed your humor in a substantive comment. I don't usually attempt humor here myself, but I appreciate it (and upvote it) when I see it from other participants here.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8333625

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=328819

[1]

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#4

Post by lucb1e »

Karunamon wrote: post #2

This struck me as more representative of other sites. Like, the one we're on now: The No Humor Rule: Humor is a de facto taboo on Quora. While the occasional demonstration of witwill evoke no more than a scowl and shake of the head from the community, more regular use will draw a barrage of down votes and risk the possibility of banishment. The staff attempts to deny that this istrue but fails to convince anyone. Man…

s/HN/StackOverflow/

But I'm not sure it's a bad thing on either HN or StackOverflow. On SO I think it's far worse than on HN, but it might be necessary to keep things under control.

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#6

Post by pinaceae »

tokenadult wrote: post #3

From the article kindly submitted here: "Quora's philosophy can be summed up as why should the serfs get a share if they were dumb enough to work for free in the first place?" That's a good question. What is the incentive to be a content creator on Quora? AFTER EDIT: Aside about the other comments wondering if Hacker News has a no-humor rule. I find comments from time to time on Hacker News that are laugh-out-loud fu…

ego.

just like wikipedia it runs on the precious recource called 'mansplaining'. men really like to show off.

just like this comment.

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#7

Post by paulojreis »

tokenadult wrote: post #3

From the article kindly submitted here: "Quora's philosophy can be summed up as why should the serfs get a share if they were dumb enough to work for free in the first place?" That's a good question. What is the incentive to be a content creator on Quora? AFTER EDIT: Aside about the other comments wondering if Hacker News has a no-humor rule. I find comments from time to time on Hacker News that are laugh-out-loud fu…

Ego, I guess. His replies are being liked/upvoted by a social network of gentlemen & scholars, while in facebook the "likes" come from the plebeians that did the ice bucket challenge (even though they are the same people; only using different personas/doing different performances).

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#8

Post by Communitivity »

"Quora's philosophy can be summed up as why should the serfs get a share if they were dumb enough to work for free in the first place?"

Different currencies. The owners of Quora are being paid in US dollars, the content creators in both attention and reputation. Both attention and reputation are currencies that will translate to dollars more and more as we progress towards an, in-part, reputation-based economy. With everyone having access to information what will matter will be your curation of that information, and your commentary. The better these are the better your reputation will be in those content areas, and the more your endorsement will be worth (in both reputation and dollars).

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#9

Post by vezzy-fnord »

Karunamon wrote: post #2

This struck me as more representative of other sites. Like, the one we're on now: The No Humor Rule: Humor is a de facto taboo on Quora. While the occasional demonstration of witwill evoke no more than a scowl and shake of the head from the community, more regular use will draw a barrage of down votes and risk the possibility of banishment. The staff attempts to deny that this istrue but fails to convince anyone. Man…

I've found that HN is overall tolerant of the occasional bit of humor or even snark, definitely to a point where you do not feel constrained.

Re: The downfall of Quora (2013)

#10

Post by Karunamon »

pinaceae wrote: post #6
tokenadult wrote: post #3

From the article kindly submitted here: "Quora's philosophy can be summed up as why should the serfs get a share if they were dumb enough to work for free in the first place?" That's a good question. What is the incentive to be a content creator on Quora? AFTER EDIT: Aside about the other comments wondering if Hacker News has a no-humor rule. I find comments from time to time on Hacker News that are laugh-out-loud fu…

ego. just like wikipedia it runs on the precious recource called 'mansplaining'. men really like to show off. just like this comment.

Is the sexism really necessary?
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