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I was an active contributor to Quora in the mid-10's -- my answers gained some 3m views. It was really something back then, as many people have fondly reminisce

by krkhan 3y ago

I was an active contributor to Quora in the mid-10's -- my answers gained some 3m views. It was really something back then, as many people have fondly reminisced about the era. There were so many great writers who brought so much understanding to whatever crazy stuff they were passionate about by writing for free on Quora. You had diplomats, chefs, former propaganda writers, people living through violent conflict, doctors, teachers, scientists, physicists, astronauts and the list goes on. Quora from that time truly helped me understand the world better. AI might have driven the final nail in the coffin but the one decision which was truly an inflection point was starting a program that would pay for asking X amount of questions. The platform was cool because of people who wrote ANSWERS -- to the point where the original question sometimes became even tangential to the actual answer but you'd learn so much nevertheless. Quora not only ended the top-writer program for those people it started offering monetary incentives for asking the most inane bullshit questions as long as they got the views. It is truly baffling to me how something that holds so much genuine value can be driven into the ground while making decisions left, right and center (and the whole community trying to tell you exactly what you're doing) that destroyed everything of value in the Quora process. The older answers are still there, but the community magic has utterly evaporated. I guess it's pretty normal for folks who have seen this happening in BBS/Usenet era but regardless of all of Quora's faults (the tone-moderation of the language was always a bit overboard in IMHO but I don't think it led to the downfall -- it was always there and writers worked around it) it is genuinely disappointing to see every successive platform try to build something of value only to falter and disappear because we just can't seem to keep anything good around.

city41 3y ago
Quora really captured lightning in a bottle around that time. I used to get a weekly (daily? Can't remember) email from Quora and I would read just about every question in it. I came to look forward to the emails. I've never had that experience with any other other newsletter.
- Agraillo 3y ago
  As a daily destination, Quora is no longer usable for me, no need to repeat what others already said. But the digest still surprises me and the posts are often good, even if it's a rewritten Wikipedia entry. It's like a user-generated "wonders of the past/world" newspaper for me. Daily was too much, but weekly is ok. I'm not sure whether every e-mail send it personalized, but at least in some way it looks like dependent on what I clicked before.
samstave 3y ago
I rage quit Quora some years ago publicly here on HN, I dont recall now the exact reason (something to do with unwanted profile/content/privacy change or some such... It was quite a while back, but I have never really gone to quora since, especially since its basically a paywall (I also never go to NYT unfortunately because their paywall is so BFY;TW I cant stand it.
- stevage 3y ago
  Wow what is that acronym?
  - samstave 3y ago
    BFY;TW - "Because Fuck You; Thats Why"
  - lifeisstillgood 3y ago
    Because Fuck You; That’s Why https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW Somehow having an acronym with a semicolon actually makes a vulgar rage explosion seem controlled and even educated. Where did we all go so Wrong?
    - jjeaff 3y ago
      Venture capital is where we rent wrong. they are to startups what PE is to developed companies.
- StressedDev 3y ago
  How do you expect the New York Times to pay its reporters if they do not charge? Internet advertising is not a large money maker for a lot of sites. Also, if people will not pay for news, unethical corporations and unethical governments will, and our "free" news will be propaganda. My main point is people on the Internet cannot have it both ways. We either pay for high quality content or we accept we are going to get clickbait, astroturf, propaganda, fake news, etc.
JSavageOne 3y ago
Fascinating and confirms my suspicions. The point when the questions popping up in my feed were obviously not genuine is when I lost interest in Quora. The worst was how it'd always show me variations of questions fetishizing working at Google. Seriously every single Quora digest email had some variation of a question like "What is the best thing about working at Google?" Unsubscribed and don't miss it.
- astrange 3y ago
  My newsletters always had one-two of those and then another that was always like "what's the hardest part of how nobody in society respects you for having a 160 IQ?"
civilized 3y ago
> It is truly baffling to me how something that holds so much genuine value can be driven into the ground while making decisions left, right and center (and the whole community trying to tell you exactly what you're doing) that destroyed everything of value in the Quora process. It's crazy that the operators of a website like this could understand so little about what made it special, but I guess all they understood was engagement metrics.
throwaway277432 3y ago
StackOverflow has the same problem, prioritizing question askers instead of answerers. As a result, the site is now "welcoming" to new users asking low-quality questions, but actively hostile to what the answerers and mods would like. While they're the ones left to clean up the spam. And when the low-effort questions are closed that then drives away the question askers too, because all the "nice" onboarding didn't tell them their question should actually be well-researched. Their expectations of getting help now clash with reality and they end up hating the experience. But all this drives views and "questions" in the short-term and management is so clueless it's hopeless. See e.g. the recent mod strike due to the AI policy issues, where they initially wanted to prevent/ban mods from deleting low-quality AI content from serial ChatGPT spammers.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  As someone that has asked a lot more (quite good) questions on SO, than has given answers, and almost all my SO rep. is based on those questions, I can report that my experience has been that I've been treated somewhat barbarously, by high-score mods. Just the mere fact that I was asking a question, made me "lesser," in their eyes. This could be rather infuriating, because I actually sorta know my stuff. One of the things that I know, is that I don't know a lot of stuff, and appreciate finding out, from folks that do. For that reason, I learned to bite my tongue, when they sneered, and appreciated the answer, which was often quite good. I haven't really done much there, in years. I still get upvotes for my questions, years after I wrote them. At some point, people just stopped answering my questions, and I usually ended up posting my solution, when I figured it out on my own. I feel that Quora has turned into the same thing that LinkedIn Groups have become: A haven for ad-scammers and "SEO" people. One of the things that happens on both platforms, is that someone asks a specific question, and ignores sincere, legitimate answers, but rewards the "shill" "answers," where a particular product is recommended as the "solution." I dumped every LI group, after encountering these folks, and I never really warmed to Quora, because, I guess, I came late to the party, after these people had started their games. I realized the platforms were worthless to me. I won't go, where I'm not wanted. I can't imagine getting paid for either answers or questions. They both take so much time and brainpower, that I can't believe that the income would be at all worthy of the effort. I think that SO actually did a good job on "gamifying" the Q&A process. I may have issue with the inevitable status games, but I learned to just keep my peace, and appreciate the help.
gn4d 3y ago
> the most inane bullshit questions as long as they got the views StackOverflow fell into a similar trap with reputation on controversial or highly upvoted question farms. The problem was further compounded by a ridiculous Triage queue system that could issue account suspensions and bans for honest opinions and feedback if your answers did not align with the prevailing groupthink of a few elite arbiters there. Not that different from what happened somewhat to HN. Read my name backwards.
- testhn2ac 3y ago
  Overall I like HN but with HN @dang 's political and racial biases are clearly visible when you observe posts and titles. I hope he expands his worldview by reading or experiencing more of the world.

by krkhan 3y ago

city41 3y ago

Quora really captured lightning in a bottle around that time. I used to get a weekly (daily? Can't remember) email from Quora and I would read just about every question in it. I came to look forward to the emails. I've never had that experience with any other other newsletter.

Agraillo 3y ago
As a daily destination, Quora is no longer usable for me, no need to repeat what others already said. But the digest still surprises me and the posts are often good, even if it's a rewritten Wikipedia entry. It's like a user-generated "wonders of the past/world" newspaper for me. Daily was too much, but weekly is ok. I'm not sure whether every e-mail send it personalized, but at least in some way it looks like dependent on what I clicked before.

samstave 3y ago

I rage quit Quora some years ago publicly here on HN, I dont recall now the exact reason (something to do with unwanted profile/content/privacy change or some such... It was quite a while back, but I have never really gone to quora since, especially since its basically a paywall (I also never go to NYT unfortunately because their paywall is so BFY;TW I cant stand it.

stevage 3y ago
Wow what is that acronym?
- samstave 3y ago
  BFY;TW - "Because Fuck You; Thats Why"
- lifeisstillgood 3y ago
  Because Fuck You; That’s Why https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW Somehow having an acronym with a semicolon actually makes a vulgar rage explosion seem controlled and even educated. Where did we all go so Wrong?
  - jjeaff 3y ago
    Venture capital is where we rent wrong. they are to startups what PE is to developed companies.
StressedDev 3y ago
How do you expect the New York Times to pay its reporters if they do not charge? Internet advertising is not a large money maker for a lot of sites. Also, if people will not pay for news, unethical corporations and unethical governments will, and our "free" news will be propaganda. My main point is people on the Internet cannot have it both ways. We either pay for high quality content or we accept we are going to get clickbait, astroturf, propaganda, fake news, etc.

JSavageOne 3y ago

Fascinating and confirms my suspicions. The point when the questions popping up in my feed were obviously not genuine is when I lost interest in Quora. The worst was how it'd always show me variations of questions fetishizing working at Google. Seriously every single Quora digest email had some variation of a question like "What is the best thing about working at Google?" Unsubscribed and don't miss it.

astrange 3y ago
My newsletters always had one-two of those and then another that was always like "what's the hardest part of how nobody in society respects you for having a 160 IQ?"

civilized 3y ago

> It is truly baffling to me how something that holds so much genuine value can be driven into the ground while making decisions left, right and center (and the whole community trying to tell you exactly what you're doing) that destroyed everything of value in the Quora process. It's crazy that the operators of a website like this could understand so little about what made it special, but I guess all they understood was engagement metrics.

throwaway277432 3y ago

StackOverflow has the same problem, prioritizing question askers instead of answerers. As a result, the site is now "welcoming" to new users asking low-quality questions, but actively hostile to what the answerers and mods would like. While they're the ones left to clean up the spam. And when the low-effort questions are closed that then drives away the question askers too, because all the "nice" onboarding didn't tell them their question should actually be well-researched. Their expectations of getting help now clash with reality and they end up hating the experience. But all this drives views and "questions" in the short-term and management is so clueless it's hopeless. See e.g. the recent mod strike due to the AI policy issues, where they initially wanted to prevent/ban mods from deleting low-quality AI content from serial ChatGPT spammers.

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
As someone that has asked a lot more (quite good) questions on SO, than has given answers, and almost all my SO rep. is based on those questions, I can report that my experience has been that I've been treated somewhat barbarously, by high-score mods. Just the mere fact that I was asking a question, made me "lesser," in their eyes. This could be rather infuriating, because I actually sorta know my stuff. One of the things that I know, is that I don't know a lot of stuff, and appreciate finding out, from folks that do. For that reason, I learned to bite my tongue, when they sneered, and appreciated the answer, which was often quite good. I haven't really done much there, in years. I still get upvotes for my questions, years after I wrote them. At some point, people just stopped answering my questions, and I usually ended up posting my solution, when I figured it out on my own. I feel that Quora has turned into the same thing that LinkedIn Groups have become: A haven for ad-scammers and "SEO" people. One of the things that happens on both platforms, is that someone asks a specific question, and ignores sincere, legitimate answers, but rewards the "shill" "answers," where a particular product is recommended as the "solution." I dumped every LI group, after encountering these folks, and I never really warmed to Quora, because, I guess, I came late to the party, after these people had started their games. I realized the platforms were worthless to me. I won't go, where I'm not wanted. I can't imagine getting paid for either answers or questions. They both take so much time and brainpower, that I can't believe that the income would be at all worthy of the effort. I think that SO actually did a good job on "gamifying" the Q&A process. I may have issue with the inevitable status games, but I learned to just keep my peace, and appreciate the help.

gn4d 3y ago

> the most inane bullshit questions as long as they got the views StackOverflow fell into a similar trap with reputation on controversial or highly upvoted question farms. The problem was further compounded by a ridiculous Triage queue system that could issue account suspensions and bans for honest opinions and feedback if your answers did not align with the prevailing groupthink of a few elite arbiters there. Not that different from what happened somewhat to HN. Read my name backwards.

testhn2ac 3y ago
Overall I like HN but with HN @dang 's political and racial biases are clearly visible when you observe posts and titles. I hope he expands his worldview by reading or experiencing more of the world.