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I upvoted your post for the same reason that you posted it - in hopes that Quora will decide not to kill privacy on the site. Now I kind of wish I hadn't since

I upvoted your post for the same reason that you posted it - in hopes that Quora will decide not to kill privacy on the site. Now I kind of wish I hadn't since the sentiment on this thread is so anti-Quora. I love Quora, too. The amount of knowledge you gain from even a few minutes there is truly incredible. If HN'ers could get over the fact that Quora is a social site started by Facebookers, I truly believe they would love it too. Quora (and the world) would benefit from more answers from the HN community.

Karunamon 14y ago
I don't have much to add other than "yeah, that", and the fact that the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old. There are a few people for various reasons who should stay the hell away from social media in all its forms. Okay, granted. For me, I don't see the point of privacy for privacy's sake. Oh no! An advertiser might know what I like! Oh no! The government might know what I like! Oh no! An ex might know what I like! And I care.... why? Put another way, I can become some sort of privacy super-advocate which means hamstringing myself socially and professionally, making my online life more difficult in just about every fashion, (No social networking, no hosted anything.. have fun with that!), or I can pick my battles and realize that I'm not a spy and more likely than not have no reason to worry about targeted ads. Rant off - I've needed to unpack this for a while. Quora is a great resource, and I'm sick and tired of seeing people slag on it for a feature they can turn off. And I'd like to respectfully ask that any downvoters at least bother to explain themselves before clicking. I realize this is probably a highly controversial stance, but the least you could do is contribute to the discussion.
- achompas 14y ago
  Agreed 100%. HNers belly-ache about Quora all day, but there is an incredible amount of information on there. If you doubt me, just go look at the best answers under the Machine Learning topic. Part of Quora's value comes from identifying answerers' identities. HNers see this as a plight on the social web, yet they can (a) still turn off views in their settings at any time, and (b) use other forums with relaxed views on privacy if they wish.
  - illuminate 14y ago
    "HNers belly-ache about Quora all day, but there is an incredible amount of information on there" That's an exceptionally strange dichotomy, people are annoyed BECAUSE there is useful information there, and the company is enforcing mostly unnecessary "social" aspects to access the data. If the data was useless, why would anyone care when they change their policy to something aggressively anti-privacy?
- illuminate 14y ago
  " the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old." Who are you to tell any person that they're misprioritizing their personal information and the value of privacy? YOU can do whatever you want, publish it to the ends of the earth, however we want this to be a choice. Not decided for us. You can't wrap your head around why someone would not wish to share these things and offer an argument from ignorance, you do not understand why, nor are you sincerely interested in knowing why.
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    >Who are you to tell any person that they're misprioritizing their personal information and the value of privacy? As soon as someone puts their thoughts out on the internet for everyone to read, they become valid targets for critical discussion. So in short, "I am" just like any other commenter on any other blog. Who are you to, with such righteous indignation, tell me what I can and cannot talk about? >You can't wrap your head around why someone would not wish to share these things and offer an argument from ignorance Ah, stop. I said it was getting old. Nothing more. There was no "argument" here. Exasperation, not an attempt to convince anyone. Besides, usually you don't convince people of anything by telling them you're sick of hearing their opinion. I am quite willing to be convinced though - I just haven't had anyone tell me why I should care that advertisers target me. At least, not in any way that wasn't based squarely on a slippery slope fallacy straight into a dystopian future that wouldn't look out of place in a Stephenson novel. So please, enlighten me. I am genuinely curious why this seems to bug so many people so deeply.

Karunamon 14y ago

I don't have much to add other than "yeah, that", and the fact that the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old. There are a few people for various reasons who should stay the hell away from social media in all its forms. Okay, granted. For me, I don't see the point of privacy for privacy's sake. Oh no! An advertiser might know what I like! Oh no! The government might know what I like! Oh no! An ex might know what I like! And I care.... why? Put another way, I can become some sort of privacy super-advocate which means hamstringing myself socially and professionally, making my online life more difficult in just about every fashion, (No social networking, no hosted anything.. have fun with that!), or I can pick my battles and realize that I'm not a spy and more likely than not have no reason to worry about targeted ads. Rant off - I've needed to unpack this for a while. Quora is a great resource, and I'm sick and tired of seeing people slag on it for a feature they can turn off. And I'd like to respectfully ask that any downvoters at least bother to explain themselves before clicking. I realize this is probably a highly controversial stance, but the least you could do is contribute to the discussion.

achompas 14y ago
Agreed 100%. HNers belly-ache about Quora all day, but there is an incredible amount of information on there. If you doubt me, just go look at the best answers under the Machine Learning topic. Part of Quora's value comes from identifying answerers' identities. HNers see this as a plight on the social web, yet they can (a) still turn off views in their settings at any time, and (b) use other forums with relaxed views on privacy if they wish.
- illuminate 14y ago
  "HNers belly-ache about Quora all day, but there is an incredible amount of information on there" That's an exceptionally strange dichotomy, people are annoyed BECAUSE there is useful information there, and the company is enforcing mostly unnecessary "social" aspects to access the data. If the data was useless, why would anyone care when they change their policy to something aggressively anti-privacy?
illuminate 14y ago
" the breathless cry of "zOMG PRIVACY!" and the sanctimonious hand wringing about "Well what about people who don't want (some dangerous person) to know what they're doing" is starting to get irritatingly old." Who are you to tell any person that they're misprioritizing their personal information and the value of privacy? YOU can do whatever you want, publish it to the ends of the earth, however we want this to be a choice. Not decided for us. You can't wrap your head around why someone would not wish to share these things and offer an argument from ignorance, you do not understand why, nor are you sincerely interested in knowing why.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  >Who are you to tell any person that they're misprioritizing their personal information and the value of privacy? As soon as someone puts their thoughts out on the internet for everyone to read, they become valid targets for critical discussion. So in short, "I am" just like any other commenter on any other blog. Who are you to, with such righteous indignation, tell me what I can and cannot talk about? >You can't wrap your head around why someone would not wish to share these things and offer an argument from ignorance Ah, stop. I said it was getting old. Nothing more. There was no "argument" here. Exasperation, not an attempt to convince anyone. Besides, usually you don't convince people of anything by telling them you're sick of hearing their opinion. I am quite willing to be convinced though - I just haven't had anyone tell me why I should care that advertisers target me. At least, not in any way that wasn't based squarely on a slippery slope fallacy straight into a dystopian future that wouldn't look out of place in a Stephenson novel. So please, enlighten me. I am genuinely curious why this seems to bug so many people so deeply.