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Quora was never as great as yahoo answers

• jfengel 3y ago
  At its peak it was considerably better than Y!A. They started with Silicon Valley luminaries (their friends) and that attracted a lot of other well educated users, especially scientists and philosophers. A lot of genuinely great content was generated. I believe Q&A sites will inevitably degrade as the low-hanging fruit is picked early. ("How do I lose weight?" "Explain relativity" "Is God real?") It can start with great answers, but it quickly becomes repetitious. Y!A probably also had a similar phase, but by the time most people heard about it, it was already famously dumb. Quora followed a similar path. It actually lasted longer than one might expect, in part because they threw a lot of money at it. But it is now much worse because it's better known and a more visible target to trolls and spammers. Plus it's reputation for paying people, which attracts vast amounts of minimum effort, much of it automated. (And not paying any more, but that doesn't stop people.)
  • MiddleEndian 3y ago
    Yahoo Answers was greater because it was so bad. Quora wasn't good enough or bad enough. Gotta go one way or the other.
    • jfengel 3y ago
      If you're a fan of trolling you should check out Quora now. There are some real full time professionals.