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"We decided it was best for Charlie to step away from his day-to-day role at the company." Whatever happened it feels like Adam wants to make the point that Ch

"We decided it was best for Charlie to step away from his day-to-day role at the company." Whatever happened it feels like Adam wants to make the point that Charlie was essentially fired. "We" is a lovely ambiguous term. They royal "We"? I suppose it's meant to imply that Charlie also agreed. But "Best for Charlie to step away" is pretty telling. There's a whole slew of options you could use to make it sound like it was Charlie's idea (although he's probably too young to 'focus on his family' I always thought Quora should monetize around an RFP type concept. It feels to me like 80% of users are there for technology recommendations from the horses' mouth.

bduerst 14y ago
I think Stack Exchange has Quora beat in the technical question market. An RFP concept would be rife with scams and low quality work.
- nancyhua 14y ago
  Quora has more mass appeal and is more of a time waster site than Stack Exchange. It's like a smarter, more gamified, Facebook-y version of Yahoo answers. The friends I introduced to it said they can spend all day reading about "what it's like to be a hitman" and asking Mark Cuban questions about his youth and stuff like that. Some of the questions re: what server to use, etc are answered by founders promoting their companies but nevertheless I think Quora has 2 valuable virtues: 1) You can get firsthand info from the horse's mouth, like read about what it's like to be a 25 year old self made millionaire, or what it's like to work with ashton kushter, or what it's like to get an investment on shark tank. You can ask what it's like to get a life sentence in prison and a real prisoner will respond. You can ask Larry Summers his opinion on something and he'll respond. 2) Quora organizes the information on the internet. Some of the stuff you could find by googling, but who just googles random questions? The flow of the site is pretty nice because you go from one interesting answer to suggested related questions. (I am just a Quora user although I know a bunch of people who work there.)
  - jacques_chester 14y ago
    You mean you can just ask people things and they might answer you? I guess I need to throw away my phone, my email, my instant messenger, my IRC client, my fax machine, my postage stamps and hell, the telex machine at the local police station.
    - nancyhua 14y ago
      Have you looked around the site? Most of the questions are not things I'd think of asking anyone. People also seem to be more inclined to answer on quora than probably a random forum or stranger's email.
      - jacques_chester 14y ago
        How do you know that?
        nancyhua 14y ago
        What do you mean? If you want to know what it's like to get a life sentence in prison or get funded on Shark Tank, how would you get this information?
        jacques_chester 14y ago
        I'd ... ask ... the people. Using some form of communication. Of which Quora is but one.
        nancyhua 14y ago
        Are you saying that Quora is fundamentally not valuable bc there are other ways of communicating? I guess if you wanted to learn about plants, you could go learn the Dewey Decimal System and go to the library and look it up in an encyclopedia... or you could about it on Wikipedia. Your response doesn't make sense to me and I don't know the purpose of this discussion at this point. I just started using Hacker News recently and have never really interacted with internet communities at all prior to this year so I'm open to the possibility that I'm not communicating clearly, or that you're being facetious.
andersbreivik 14y ago
I don't think it implies Charlie agreed at all, it actually implies the opposite. That's quite an ugly statement. I'd personally be very hesitant to partner with Adam after reading this, considering how this incident played out. Well... who am I kidding, if I had the opportunity to found the next Quora I'd jump on it, but I'd be watching for knives the whole time..
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  In my experience knowing people who have chosen both ways (not the same person of course), watching for knives is a sad sad way to live.
- nancyhua 14y ago
  Would someone have the power to oust Charlie unwillingly? I dont know much about how the company was split up so am wondering. The drama of these tech companies bores me except insofar as it relates to my personal account. Don't founders leave companies all the time, especially when theyve already made a lot of money? Also I feel like at some point all these decisions are mutual.
- bigiain 14y ago
  "I'd personally be very hesitant to partner with Adam after reading this" I dunno, there's clearly a risk there based on his apparent behaviour here, but there's also an obvious opportunity - who'd _not_ want a cofounder who's not only prepared but also able to dump $400mil into his own B round?
  - jc123 14y ago
    I think you mean $40mil since the total was only 50.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Au contraire, "nothing succeeds like success."

bduerst 14y ago

I think Stack Exchange has Quora beat in the technical question market. An RFP concept would be rife with scams and low quality work.

nancyhua 14y ago
Quora has more mass appeal and is more of a time waster site than Stack Exchange. It's like a smarter, more gamified, Facebook-y version of Yahoo answers. The friends I introduced to it said they can spend all day reading about "what it's like to be a hitman" and asking Mark Cuban questions about his youth and stuff like that. Some of the questions re: what server to use, etc are answered by founders promoting their companies but nevertheless I think Quora has 2 valuable virtues: 1) You can get firsthand info from the horse's mouth, like read about what it's like to be a 25 year old self made millionaire, or what it's like to work with ashton kushter, or what it's like to get an investment on shark tank. You can ask what it's like to get a life sentence in prison and a real prisoner will respond. You can ask Larry Summers his opinion on something and he'll respond. 2) Quora organizes the information on the internet. Some of the stuff you could find by googling, but who just googles random questions? The flow of the site is pretty nice because you go from one interesting answer to suggested related questions. (I am just a Quora user although I know a bunch of people who work there.)
- jacques_chester 14y ago
  You mean you can just ask people things and they might answer you? I guess I need to throw away my phone, my email, my instant messenger, my IRC client, my fax machine, my postage stamps and hell, the telex machine at the local police station.
  - nancyhua 14y ago
    Have you looked around the site? Most of the questions are not things I'd think of asking anyone. People also seem to be more inclined to answer on quora than probably a random forum or stranger's email.
    - jacques_chester 14y ago
      How do you know that?
      - nancyhua 14y ago
        What do you mean? If you want to know what it's like to get a life sentence in prison or get funded on Shark Tank, how would you get this information?
        jacques_chester 14y ago
        I'd ... ask ... the people. Using some form of communication. Of which Quora is but one.
        nancyhua 14y ago
        Are you saying that Quora is fundamentally not valuable bc there are other ways of communicating? I guess if you wanted to learn about plants, you could go learn the Dewey Decimal System and go to the library and look it up in an encyclopedia... or you could about it on Wikipedia. Your response doesn't make sense to me and I don't know the purpose of this discussion at this point. I just started using Hacker News recently and have never really interacted with internet communities at all prior to this year so I'm open to the possibility that I'm not communicating clearly, or that you're being facetious.

andersbreivik 14y ago

I don't think it implies Charlie agreed at all, it actually implies the opposite. That's quite an ugly statement. I'd personally be very hesitant to partner with Adam after reading this, considering how this incident played out. Well... who am I kidding, if I had the opportunity to found the next Quora I'd jump on it, but I'd be watching for knives the whole time..

ChuckMcM 14y ago
In my experience knowing people who have chosen both ways (not the same person of course), watching for knives is a sad sad way to live.
nancyhua 14y ago
Would someone have the power to oust Charlie unwillingly? I dont know much about how the company was split up so am wondering. The drama of these tech companies bores me except insofar as it relates to my personal account. Don't founders leave companies all the time, especially when theyve already made a lot of money? Also I feel like at some point all these decisions are mutual.
bigiain 14y ago
"I'd personally be very hesitant to partner with Adam after reading this" I dunno, there's clearly a risk there based on his apparent behaviour here, but there's also an obvious opportunity - who'd _not_ want a cofounder who's not only prepared but also able to dump $400mil into his own B round?
- jc123 14y ago
  I think you mean $40mil since the total was only 50.
rhizome 14y ago
Au contraire, "nothing succeeds like success."