That's the thing that baffles me about Quora. I've seen interesting questions and responses but they're totally unreadable. A decade+ after we all knew Experts Exchange was a horrid experience and years after Stack Overflow proved you could show the content and be successful... Quora went right back there.
I'm not going to play that game. I don't care enough. They've made it hard enough for me to see if I like their content that I'm not going to try. They lost their chance at me being a user by treating me like garbage.
I shouldn't have to 'impress the bouncer' to get in to read content they want me to see.
As I've explained on an earlier piece: the value of online discussions is the dissemination of that information. Not just to others, but to both those asking and answering questions.
From very early in my online experience, I've found the two best ways to learn things are to answer questions, and to ask them. In that order.
By asking a question, you hear from others. By answering questions you're submitting a testable hypothesis and baseline which others can respond to, and which ultimately can only be improved upon. If I'm right, then others may either respond with less-correct solutions or misinterpretations of my comments. If I'm wrong (or not as correct as I might be), others can improve on my response.
And that's highly useful.
By restricting the availability of the responses to Quora questions, you're hurting that dynamic. And there are plenty of places (reddit, StackExchange, Wikipedia, HN, MediaFilter) in which those questions can be asked, answered, and extended.
I'll draw particular attention to MF: it's a pay-to-play system for responders. If you want an account, you've got to pay a $5 fee. Which is among the reasons I don't participate (at least not under this identity -- I've generally tried to maintain an isolation of this from my real-life ID), though if I found the site sufficiently useful I wouldn't object in principle. However I don't need to pay that fee to view the responses, and I'm more than free to refer to MF posts and extend answers on other sites.
Quora does not (readily) allow for this.
Add that they gratuitously block The Internet Archive and I'm done with them entirely.
They didn't need to take his investment to get that advice. I think they need to pivot much more than just doing the obvious, and thats probably why they are there. The current Quora "business model" is worthless, zero revenue, no prospect of any.
Comments
Since PG has criticized Quora for it's registration wall tactics[1] does this mean they're going to turn into a good net citizen?
[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5217449
That's the thing that baffles me about Quora. I've seen interesting questions and responses but they're totally unreadable. A decade+ after we all knew Experts Exchange was a horrid experience and years after Stack Overflow proved you could show the content and be successful... Quora went right back there.
Protip: if you append '?share=1' to the URL it will display the page without the blur.
Or I could just sign up for a free account.
I'm not going to play that game. I don't care enough. They've made it hard enough for me to see if I like their content that I'm not going to try. They lost their chance at me being a user by treating me like garbage.
I shouldn't have to 'impress the bouncer' to get in to read content they want me to see.
Oh I agree 100%, I was not trying to say that you should not bitch since you can signup for a free account.
As I've explained on an earlier piece: the value of online discussions is the dissemination of that information. Not just to others, but to both those asking and answering questions.
From very early in my online experience, I've found the two best ways to learn things are to answer questions, and to ask them. In that order.
By asking a question, you hear from others. By answering questions you're submitting a testable hypothesis and baseline which others can respond to, and which ultimately can only be improved upon. If I'm right, then others may either respond with less-correct solutions or misinterpretations of my comments. If I'm wrong (or not as correct as I might be), others can improve on my response.
And that's highly useful.
By restricting the availability of the responses to Quora questions, you're hurting that dynamic. And there are plenty of places (reddit, StackExchange, Wikipedia, HN, MediaFilter) in which those questions can be asked, answered, and extended.
I'll draw particular attention to MF: it's a pay-to-play system for responders. If you want an account, you've got to pay a $5 fee. Which is among the reasons I don't participate (at least not under this identity -- I've generally tried to maintain an isolation of this from my real-life ID), though if I found the site sufficiently useful I wouldn't object in principle. However I don't need to pay that fee to view the responses, and I'm more than free to refer to MF posts and extend answers on other sites.
Quora does not (readily) allow for this.
Add that they gratuitously block The Internet Archive and I'm done with them entirely.
Typo: you have "MediaFilter" where you meant "MetaFilter".
Quite. Thanks.
They didn't need to take his investment to get that advice. I think they need to pivot much more than just doing the obvious, and thats probably why they are there. The current Quora "business model" is worthless, zero revenue, no prospect of any.
My guess is that this was not PG's call. It was Sam's.