6 ms·

That's why I left Quora. I'm a really gullible person, and I was going to respond to somebody who posted something inflammatory, then I realized I had the optio

That's why I left Quora. I'm a really gullible person, and I was going to respond to somebody who posted something inflammatory, then I realized I had the option to just walk away. So I did. I remember something similar about companies too. When you have product market fit, customers will sear you when your product doesn't work. If you don't, you'll never hear from them again.

egfx 7y ago
If you don’t what?
- KineticLensman 7y ago
  If you don't have product market fit
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- smichel17 7y ago
  Have a product-market fit
Mahn 7y ago
Tangential, but it's strange to me the sort of culture that Quora has cultivated over the years. It seems to tolerate and even encourage low quality content and contributors to the point that ignorance, misinformation and poorly researched opinionated answers thrive on a regular basis. That's not to say there aren't good contributors and content, but browse any one random topic today and you'll be forgiven for thinking you are on Yahoo Answers. Just no filter at all, extremely poor questions, offtopic comments posted as answers, people with no understanding of the subject shamelessly pretending to know what they are talking about, etc etc. It's just all around incredibly unpleasant. I loved Quora in its early years when it was invitation only, but I don't ever want to have anything to do with it again.
- wyattpeak 7y ago
  I browse Quora quite a lot, but I only follow writers I like, and no topics, to avoid exactly this. The average answer quality is dreadful. I think the point about shamelessly pretending to understand, though, is a subtler question, and difficult to address. I follow people on a lot of topics I don't know about, and I've occasionally discovered later down the line than they're full of crap. And I realise in retrospect that I've helped them do it, upvoting seemingly well-researched answers because I appreciated the effort. It really highlights the difficulty of figuring out who to trust when there's no central authority, and I could see myself being drawn into some reality-denying group a la flat-earthers or antivaxxers just because I happened to follow the wrong people at the start, and on their advice reject other answers.
rapnie 7y ago
Good guide to avoiding trolls. Golden rule: "A conversation is not a contest" https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom/blob/master/Avoiding_Trolls.md https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom/blob/master/Avoiding_Tr...
- nickpsecurity 7y ago
  That was pretty awesome. Thanks for the link!
- jazzdev 7y ago
  Some very insightful thoughts in that link. I especially liked these two: "People who provide challenging opinions are not trolling so long as they are not deviating from the conversation at hand. There are some people whose only goal is to attain emotional harmony. When a challenging opinion is encountered it is easy for some people to view this disruption to the social norm as trolling, when it likely isn't." "Some people are easily offended. When a person engages in a conversation directly without distraction they aren't trolling simply because you became emotional."
BiteCode_dev 7y ago
Yes but if everybody does that, the only thing that will remain in the history will be unchallenged inflammatory claims. Which will lead most people passing by to consider that the topic is mostly driven from the point of view of this minority. This is why we hear a lot about the SJW, anti-vax, the flat earther and so on these days: they make a lot of noise online, even if IRL we never see them because there are so few of them. This is also why we can see extreme political point of views rising, because people are embolden to join in, reading mass of unchallenged content, pandering to their fear. IRL, they may not, it would not be socially acceptable and the barrier to entry would be bigger.
- yingw787 7y ago
  People generally don't say inflammatory things because they're inherently evil. They're scared, or mad, or have things going on in their life. Arguing online won't change that. Conversely, fixing those things may make trolling less appealing. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632474-i-have-a-foreboding-of-an-america-in-my-children-s https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632474-i-have-a-foreboding-...
dhimes 7y ago
You're smart. Apparently 1% of us just can't keep our damn mouths shut.
- yingw787 7y ago
  I didn't smarten up until I did! Still love the HN community :)

egfx 7y ago

If you don’t what?

KineticLensman 7y ago
If you don't have product market fit
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
smichel17 7y ago
Have a product-market fit

Mahn 7y ago

Tangential, but it's strange to me the sort of culture that Quora has cultivated over the years. It seems to tolerate and even encourage low quality content and contributors to the point that ignorance, misinformation and poorly researched opinionated answers thrive on a regular basis. That's not to say there aren't good contributors and content, but browse any one random topic today and you'll be forgiven for thinking you are on Yahoo Answers. Just no filter at all, extremely poor questions, offtopic comments posted as answers, people with no understanding of the subject shamelessly pretending to know what they are talking about, etc etc. It's just all around incredibly unpleasant. I loved Quora in its early years when it was invitation only, but I don't ever want to have anything to do with it again.

wyattpeak 7y ago
I browse Quora quite a lot, but I only follow writers I like, and no topics, to avoid exactly this. The average answer quality is dreadful. I think the point about shamelessly pretending to understand, though, is a subtler question, and difficult to address. I follow people on a lot of topics I don't know about, and I've occasionally discovered later down the line than they're full of crap. And I realise in retrospect that I've helped them do it, upvoting seemingly well-researched answers because I appreciated the effort. It really highlights the difficulty of figuring out who to trust when there's no central authority, and I could see myself being drawn into some reality-denying group a la flat-earthers or antivaxxers just because I happened to follow the wrong people at the start, and on their advice reject other answers.

rapnie 7y ago

Good guide to avoiding trolls. Golden rule: "A conversation is not a contest" https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom/blob/master/Avoiding_Trolls.md https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom/blob/master/Avoiding_Tr...

nickpsecurity 7y ago
That was pretty awesome. Thanks for the link!
jazzdev 7y ago
Some very insightful thoughts in that link. I especially liked these two: "People who provide challenging opinions are not trolling so long as they are not deviating from the conversation at hand. There are some people whose only goal is to attain emotional harmony. When a challenging opinion is encountered it is easy for some people to view this disruption to the social norm as trolling, when it likely isn't." "Some people are easily offended. When a person engages in a conversation directly without distraction they aren't trolling simply because you became emotional."

BiteCode_dev 7y ago

Yes but if everybody does that, the only thing that will remain in the history will be unchallenged inflammatory claims. Which will lead most people passing by to consider that the topic is mostly driven from the point of view of this minority. This is why we hear a lot about the SJW, anti-vax, the flat earther and so on these days: they make a lot of noise online, even if IRL we never see them because there are so few of them. This is also why we can see extreme political point of views rising, because people are embolden to join in, reading mass of unchallenged content, pandering to their fear. IRL, they may not, it would not be socially acceptable and the barrier to entry would be bigger.

yingw787 7y ago
People generally don't say inflammatory things because they're inherently evil. They're scared, or mad, or have things going on in their life. Arguing online won't change that. Conversely, fixing those things may make trolling less appealing. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632474-i-have-a-foreboding-of-an-america-in-my-children-s https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632474-i-have-a-foreboding-...

dhimes 7y ago

You're smart. Apparently 1% of us just can't keep our damn mouths shut.

yingw787 7y ago
I didn't smarten up until I did! Still love the HN community :)