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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

#41

Post by Simucal »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #21

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…

I have the same frustrations as other people regarding the choices Quora has made regarding its platform.

However, I have also found a lot of high quality answers to some very interesting questions on the site. It has some really good content once you get inside.

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

#42

Post by dylangs1030 »

Yep. In the past month or so, I've been conditioned not to click on Quora links for disappointment-avoidance.

"Oh, look at that, someone had my exact problem on Quora!" ... "Fuck this nonsense, I'm going back to Stack Exchange/Google."

...Which then prompts this response: http://xkcd.com/979/ The answer might as well be that far away.

This drives me up a wall. I hate it when websites try to restrict their readership so brazenly.

On the one hand, I respect that the website has the authority and right to control its own information. On the other hand, it was submitted by a collective pool of users, and I just don't have the time to bother with side-stepping the shitty blurring mechanism. I just learned not to click on Quora links anymore.

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

#44

Post by unboring »

devicenull wrote: post #38
rurounijones wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

x.com was originally PayPal, so eBay owns the domain once they acquired them.

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

#46

Post by rurounijones »

devicenull wrote: post #38
rurounijones wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I did say potentially

In this case no it is not a small company, but I have seen people sign up to things with random email addresses that did map to small-time company domains.

Just be a nice guy, avoid the risk and use example.com is what I am trying to say.

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

#47

Post by artursapek »

niggler wrote: post #22
artursapek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's simply divs masking the content there must be a way to load the page on an iOS emulation, screencap the entire length of the page, and compare the amount of "content" in the source to what shows up in the screencap. I'm not saying it's worth the trouble for Google. Quora is probably the worst example of this bullshit. But it's certainly possible to automatically catch devilry like this, isn't it?

Your proposal actually addresses quite a few sites that put lots of phrases in small font to boost pagerank rating

With the proper image analysis technology it should work, right?

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

#49

Post by pg »

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 mistake to alienate the sort of people Quora has been alienating by doing this, even if they end up numerically ahead in the short term.

I'm one of them. Quora has now spent several years training me to be bummed out every time I click on a link to their site. Every time it happens, I dislike them more, and become more resistant to creating an account. I now think of it as a site for other people, who are willing to put up with the stuff they do. I'm pleased to find there are others like me.

I like Adam, but I wish he'd stop doing this.

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

#50

Post by wilfra »

paulgb wrote: post #29
astrodust wrote: post #2

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.

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 result.

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