I'm going to quote myself from 2012 [1]: > I can't help bit feel vindicated by moves like this because they're a sign that Quora isn't the Next Big Thing that

I'm going to quote myself from 2012 [1]: > I can't help bit feel vindicated by moves like this because they're a sign that Quora isn't the Next Big Thing that many inside the bubble that is Silicon Valley seemed to think it is ... This being about the forced login requirement. I said then and stand by it now that there is limited upside in Q&A sites. We saw this with ExpertSexChange years before. At first some quality content but ultimately the only growth is from low-value content, SEO, dark UX patterns (eg hiding answers, requiring logins, putting answers after a long set of ads) all for something that just isn't that special. Stackoverflow did an admirable job of organizing technical answers but ultimately Google remains their primary source of traffic (~90% was the last figure I heard) and by publishing their answers with a Creative Commons License (a move I applaud) they've insured the community against a later management change that would otherwise decide to enact those same dark patterns as the only viable growth path. And yes I know there's Stack Exchange but none of those sites has hit similar success to SO. As for this post about Quora's attempt to force binding individual arbitration on users, the first comment I have is of course I'm not surprised. The second is that IANAL but this this isn't a contract, it's an updated Terms of Service. That being said, I'm pretty sure this isn't necessarily legal in all (any?) North American jurisdictions and even where that question is unknown it probably just hasn't been tested in court yet. I was going to say that Quora is based in California and CA has generally been pretty user-friendly here but that may not exactly be true. A couple of things I found: - California law (specifically the California Arbitration Act or CAA) may be preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"). There's a pending case in Federal Court where a stay has been issued against CAA pending that trial. It's not clear to me (being NAL) if this is specific to certain areas (eg employment, construction) or general and whether it applies to updated ToS; - A California court upheld an arbitration clause in clickwrap ToS on an app as of October 2019 [2] My main takeaway however is I don't care about Quora, I've never cared about Quora, I don't understand why anyone cares about Quora, I've never posted to Quora and I've never understood why anyone else posted or continues to post to Quora so this has net zero effect on me. Quora wasn't (IMHO) relevant in 2012 and is less relevant now. These are the moves of a company in its death throes. Ok, bye. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4377904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4377904 [2]: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/court-enforces-arbitration-clause-clickwrap-agreement-ganjapreneur-app https://www.natlawreview.com/article/court-enforces-arbitrat...