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I think the main reason is the general feeling that Quora is being hyped into unexplainable proportions.

by yuvadam 16y ago

jdp23 16y ago
I also think that's a big part of it -- especially since so many HN'ers look at StackOverflow and see something much farther along than Quora.
marssaxman 16y ago
That's a big part of it for me. Nobody seems to be able to explain what makes Quora new and different, or why I should care about it at all, and yet articles about it keep on coming up as though the site is self-evidently a big deal. It makes me wonder whether the people who enthuse about Quora have ever heard of a question-answer site before; maybe they don't know how to explain what makes it interesting because they don't realize this is already a well-established format. There's also the fact that there does not appear to be any way to browse the site to find out what it's about - the front page is a completely off-putting sign-up form.
- malandrew 16y ago
  You're right, Q&A sites have been around for a while. Was Quora the first one to get the community aspects right? No they weren't. StackOverflow figured that out first. What Quora accomplished that was a really really hard problem was how to make the social aspect work across all subject areas while at the same time getting area to stay on topic. That's impressive. The only reason I can imagine someone not finding that impressive would be because they've never tried to manage and build a community.
  - boxedin 16y ago
    If it can still stay on topic when it becomes mainstream then people might be impressed. I don't like the social aspect to it actually so I don't think I will ever use it. I much prefer how stackexchange works.
mrlase 16y ago
That and I feel like the actual QUALITY of the content is pretty low, a la Yahoo answers with (mostly) correct grammar. Some of the answers are "insightful", or maybe I'm not looking at the right topics, but for the most part, I don't see much value in it.

I think the main reason is the general feeling that Quora is being hyped into unexplainable proportions.

by yuvadam 16y ago

I think the main reason is the general feeling that Quora is being hyped into unexplainable proportions.

jdp23 16y ago

I also think that's a big part of it -- especially since so many HN'ers look at StackOverflow and see something much farther along than Quora.

marssaxman 16y ago

That's a big part of it for me. Nobody seems to be able to explain what makes Quora new and different, or why I should care about it at all, and yet articles about it keep on coming up as though the site is self-evidently a big deal. It makes me wonder whether the people who enthuse about Quora have ever heard of a question-answer site before; maybe they don't know how to explain what makes it interesting because they don't realize this is already a well-established format. There's also the fact that there does not appear to be any way to browse the site to find out what it's about - the front page is a completely off-putting sign-up form.

malandrew 16y ago
You're right, Q&A sites have been around for a while. Was Quora the first one to get the community aspects right? No they weren't. StackOverflow figured that out first. What Quora accomplished that was a really really hard problem was how to make the social aspect work across all subject areas while at the same time getting area to stay on topic. That's impressive. The only reason I can imagine someone not finding that impressive would be because they've never tried to manage and build a community.
- boxedin 16y ago
  If it can still stay on topic when it becomes mainstream then people might be impressed. I don't like the social aspect to it actually so I don't think I will ever use it. I much prefer how stackexchange works.

mrlase 16y ago

That and I feel like the actual QUALITY of the content is pretty low, a la Yahoo answers with (mostly) correct grammar. Some of the answers are "insightful", or maybe I'm not looking at the right topics, but for the most part, I don't see much value in it.