Hacker News Reader

Comment by joshstrange | Hacker News Reader

Quora being a good option is incredibly surprising to me. I never click on Quora links as 90% of the time the "answers" are just ads or people who want to pretend they are a bigger deal than they are and know more than they do.

I'm a little surprised podcast ads weren't tried, mostly because I'd love to know how well those do/don't work out for a tool like this.

View on HN

It’s great for advertisers for the same reason people still use Nigerian prince scams: the victim has already demonstrated a clear lack of judgment and high susceptibility to bullshit.

Most people I know who actively use Quora are in the 65+ demographic. I've asked what's keeping them, and it turns out they have much more tolerance for things like sponsored posts and mandatory signups than most users would

a) that isn't what's keeping them. people don't stay somewhere because things that bother you, don't bother them. you didn't name anything they like about it.

b) the mandatory signup meme is and has always been ridiculous. it takes 8 seconds to create an account. for anyone who gets value out of something, that's not a big ask. if you're not willing to spend 8 seconds then it wasn't for you anyway.

That is a very disingenuous way to describe signups. You also have to deal with asinine password requirements, and you are guaranteed to be signed up for multiple spam lists you never asked for. Once you get fed up and unsubscribe from them through some obtuse process, you will still inevitably get signed up for some new “digest” or “update” list a few months later…ad nauseam. Not to mention your information is guaranteed to be sold or leaked.

> That is a very disingenuous way to describe signups.

I wasn't describing signups, I was specifically describing the Quora signup. People have been bitching about that for almost 15 years and nobody who actually uses and likes Quora cares. It's like the notch on the iPhone. Only something people who would never own an iPhone bitch about.

I am not saying you should signup. I am saying it's ridiculous to complain about it when it's clearly not a service you even like in the first place. Why do you care what some website you don't even like requires?

I never consciously click on Quora links. Yet, I very often end-up there because I clicked something without checking what it is, and their SEO is extremely effective.

It never helps either, so I go back. And I don't think any ad pass through my ad-blocker. But I'm not very surprised by the ads there being useful.

Same. The Quora website feels actively user-hostile, I avoid it.

Just like Reddit- it wasn’t always that way.

I'm still unsure what I'm going to do when they finally take old.reddit.com away from me.

That's my impression of Quora today too.

It was such a special place in the early years. Sad to see what they let happen to it. The saddest part is that it's surely deliberate. They have some really, really smart people working there. And they decided this is what they want.

> Quora being a good option is incredibly surprising to me.

Me too - I'd never heard of it, so I felt compelled to go and look. Bounced off the signup page and thought "That's probably why more people don't use it".

It might be worth signing up, but as I have no clue what it is or if it's any good, why would I invest that time?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com