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> Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit

> Google search and their new NLP technology is just extracting the question and answers from content like that on Quora, significantly reducing their page hit volumes This frustrates me, but I think Quora's UX and marketing decisions greatly exacerbated this effect. Quora shot themselves in the foot with a shotgun thanks to their sign up walls. At one point (and probably still true), you couldn't even click a link to a related question within Quora itself without being forced to sign up. This acts as a resistance, causing people to essentially bounce from Quora back to Google after the first click, so they can get a related question or answer, which Google provides thousands of pages of for free. Google was on one corner selling fresh-pressed lemonade, and Quora opened a lemonade stand for 10x the price on the exact same corner. Rumor has it, Google's lemonade tasted better anyway.

randompi 7y ago
Which reminds me Facebook's wall worked perfectly for them. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind signing up yet another account among the hundreds of accounts I already have.
jaclaz 7y ago
Just in case, add a question mark at the end of the Quora URL (that prompts you to login) and refresh. Links from within Quora miss that and then you are prompted to login, but if you add the question mark you can access the target without logging in.
- arcturus17 7y ago
  Thanks for the tip and I mean that genuinely but we shouldn’t need to do that to have a decent user experience.
  - jaclaz 7y ago
    >but we shouldn’t need to do that to have a decent user experience. Not only that, this (as well as many other simple "tricks" or "workarounds") creates (arbitrarily) two kinds of users, those that know the trick and those that don't (and likely create two different sets of user opinions). I mean, to me (because I know the little trick) usage of Quora is relatively painless (though I still try my best to avoiding using it because of the mostly terribly bad content) whilst another user that doesn't know the trick and doesn't want to login may have the illusion that the content, once accessed, may have some value.
    - mamon 7y ago
      Also, this might constitute a fellony, basically you're "hacking" Quora, using technical tricks to circumvent security measures they put in place. And no, it doesn't matter that the trick is so trivial.
      - jaclaz 7y ago
        Sure, that is why it is - rectius was until now - a secret, that only a selected number of criminals knew.
rawoke083600 7y ago
Yea exactly ! If you make it hard for the user to do simple stuff... Read and answer... They won't come back or like you much.. i.e #DontMakeMeThink from the user :P

randompi 7y ago

Which reminds me Facebook's wall worked perfectly for them. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind signing up yet another account among the hundreds of accounts I already have.

jaclaz 7y ago

Just in case, add a question mark at the end of the Quora URL (that prompts you to login) and refresh. Links from within Quora miss that and then you are prompted to login, but if you add the question mark you can access the target without logging in.

arcturus17 7y ago
Thanks for the tip and I mean that genuinely but we shouldn’t need to do that to have a decent user experience.
- jaclaz 7y ago
  >but we shouldn’t need to do that to have a decent user experience. Not only that, this (as well as many other simple "tricks" or "workarounds") creates (arbitrarily) two kinds of users, those that know the trick and those that don't (and likely create two different sets of user opinions). I mean, to me (because I know the little trick) usage of Quora is relatively painless (though I still try my best to avoiding using it because of the mostly terribly bad content) whilst another user that doesn't know the trick and doesn't want to login may have the illusion that the content, once accessed, may have some value.
  - mamon 7y ago
    Also, this might constitute a fellony, basically you're "hacking" Quora, using technical tricks to circumvent security measures they put in place. And no, it doesn't matter that the trick is so trivial.
    - jaclaz 7y ago
      Sure, that is why it is - rectius was until now - a secret, that only a selected number of criminals knew.

rawoke083600 7y ago

Yea exactly ! If you make it hard for the user to do simple stuff... Read and answer... They won't come back or like you much.. i.e #DontMakeMeThink from the user :P