Why we ask people to sign in (Quora)

Unless things have changed recently, Quora requires users to sign in to simply read a post. The problem with that should be obvious. A user is not there to serve Quora. Quora is (theoretically) there to serve the user.

Users not familiar with Quora (i.e. outside the SV bubble) may not have any idea what Quora is, or what value it provides. Upon stumbling on a link from Google, they click it, are sent to Quora and are immediately asked to create an account. Or maybe Quora will show a portion of the post or a few comments, but you have to establish an account to read more.

Quora is essentially asking to have sex without a first date.

At its core, Quora is (roughly) Stack Overflow: knowledgeable answers to questions, albeit across a broader spectrum of topics. There's good stuff in there. I established an account about a year ago. But when I'm presented with a prompt to log in to simply read something, I don't. And yet I have an account. I simply move on. I can't explain it but it feels offensive, like I'm being gamed.

Stack Overflow and HN provide enormous value to lurkers. I barely comment on things here on HN...but I visit daily. Multiple times a day. Every day.

When I feel the need to comment on HN, I log in. It's actually a pretty simple concept that somehow eludes Quora. One can't help but question why are they so insistent on requiring a user to log in to simply read. Reading is not participating. It is consuming. Imagine requiring a user to login to read a blog post. That's crazy.

There is some motive to requiring a user to login to read. I don't know what it is, but it feels wrong. At the very least, it's not user-friendly. They are discouraging visits and turning people away.

The closest example I can think of to requiring a user to sign in to consume content is Twitter. Somehow it feels different, maybe because Twitter is a microphone for anything you want to say vs. writing up an intelligent answer to a question (or asking a question). Folks can spout out nonsense on Twitter. And part of it is gossip/entertainment. That content won't fly on Quora which desires quality content.

I don't know. That's just one perspective.

My rule of thumb with startups: if a UX interaction seems intrusive or unintuitive, it's probably "growth hacking."

What a waste of a post. There is absolutely no "meat" in that post; it's all marketing fluff. Boo. Like minimaxir said, it's probably growth hacking.