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As a long-time Quora user I actually like this and it is one of the main reasons I share so freely on Quora. If I knew anybody could read anything I write via a
by wilfra 14y ago
As a long-time Quora user I actually like this and it is one of the main reasons I share so freely on Quora. If I knew anybody could read anything I write via a Google search, I would be much more guarded - and if they suddenly stopped this practice I would put serious thought to deleting all of my answers. But the way they do it preserves a good deal of anonymity.
I don't know if that is their intent, but it's the result.
- paulgb 14y agoIt doesn't work like that though. Quora still wants Google to see the content for SEO. Google still indexes your answers: https://www.google.ca/search?q=site%3Awww.quora.com%2FWilliam-Franceschine%2Fanswers https://www.google.ca/search?q=site%3Awww.quora.com%2FWillia... (Quora does have a setting to hide your name from search engines for this reason though)
- wilfra 14y agoI don't care if the Google bots can read what I write, I care about clients, family members etc who Google me. If they REALLY want to read my answers, they can create an account. Most people wont bother though.
- paulgb 14y agoQuora seems to only whiteout searches that land on an answer page. When I search for a user's name in incognito, I can see their whole answer history unobscured. You can disallow search engine indexing from your settings under Settings -> Account -> Allow Indexing (disallow) if you're worried about it.
- wilfra 14y agoTry clicking around. They still obscure answers that aren't the top answer, though you're right there is a fair amount of content visible.
- paulgb 14y agoWhen I click the "answers" tab on the sidebar of a user profile, I can see the entire user's answer history unobscured. Is this not the case for you? Maybe we're caught on different sides of an A/B test, although I keep getting the same results in new incognito windows.
- wilfra 14y agoAh, I didn't click that. You are correct. Opening questions from their feed brings up obscured answers.
- binarycrusader 14y agoExcept people can still see the answers, they just make it more difficult to do so. (You have to click the timestamps below the comments and read them one at a time.) So please don't try to justify their abhorrent anti-open-web behaviour with would-be privacy assertions.
- akkartik 14y agoYou're relying on undocumented behavior. They'd be well within their rights to change it (say due to this adverse publicity). What happens then? You got me to go login to Quora after over a year to see what you were so concerned about. Perfectly reasonable, well thought-out comments on respectable topics. I think you're trolling, sir.