Exactly. Quora has the same core business model as BuzzFeed: pay for content and serve ads next to it. Imagine if BuzzFeed let someone write thousands of pieces

Exactly. Quora has the same core business model as BuzzFeed: pay for content and serve ads next to it. Imagine if BuzzFeed let someone write thousands of pieces of content for them over a period of weeks on the promise of payment and then decided not to pay them. This doesn't feel intrinsically different to me.