I wish I didn't have to register/login just to see this allegedly great design. I've heard about Quora, and it sounds neat, but at this point I don't see a compelling reason to create an account. It would be nice to be able to see some of the actual content before deciding if I want to register.
Things that aren't publicly viewable are question comments and revision logs.
Imagine if Google had spent the last 4 years refining Google Answers instead of boxing it up.
If they simply refined Google Answers, it still would have failed. Google Answers didn't need refinement, it needed an entirely new approach, and thats what Quora has done.
The quality of content on Quora is inversely proportional to the number of people using Quora.