4 ms·

Can someone explain how there a place for Quora? The only niche I can think of is generic technical advise. Stackoverflow answers all the tech questions but th

by yalogin 13y ago

Can someone explain how there a place for Quora? The only niche I can think of is generic technical advise. Stackoverflow answers all the tech questions but they are overly pedantic to the point of ridiculous when it comes to generic tech questions. Hackernews should have been the correct place for generic tech advise but we don't see questions of that nature here. May be as far as tech advise goes people from startups would rather write blog posts and get some credibility for their companies rather than contribute anonymously. So how is Quora relevant or can be? On top of that they only show you one question. So that boggles my mind as to why it can become popular if its gated to begin with.

wiremine 13y ago
> The only niche I can think of is generic technical advise. I think that's their main thrust at this point. However, I've recently seen Q&As regarding my home town: - What are the best restaurants? - What is parking like? - What are the hidden gems in the city? - Etc. The quality of the answers is higher than what you'd see on Yahoo Answers, and more timely. So, I can envision a Quora that is valuable outside of technical questions. But that assumes they can retain the quality and keep the timeliness, IMHO. To use SO as an example: StackOverflow is running into the timeliness issue: I've been building a Rails 4 app recently, and a LOT Of SEO questions are out-of-date on. I can google around that problem due to my professional needs, but I doubt a general Q&A site would retain an audience in the long-term if the same problem emerged.
pmorici 13y ago
"Hackernews should have been the correct place for generic tech advise but we don't see questions of that nature here." In my experience HN isn't a great place to ask questions like that, at least not any more. I tried to post an "Ask HN" question about pricing hardware and working with re-sellers the other day. First, under a newly created account so I could share more details; that submission was immediately killed I assume as a preventative measure against spam. So then I posted a much more generic version asking the same question under my typical username it floated to the bottom of the new page w/o getting any votes or responses. So I went over to Quora posted the same thing anonymously and had a reasonable answer and pointers to things to read up on in a couple hours. I like HN and have been reading it regularly for years but it isn't a replacement for Quora
- yalogin 13y ago
  Its a shame. This is exactly the group of people that could guide you in the correct direction. But I guess that is a lot to share for companies. I for one would have loved to see answers to that question myself. Did you post it on Quora and did you get any responses there? If so can you paste the link here?
  - pmorici 13y ago
    Yes, http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-important-things-to-keep-in-mind-when-negotiating-relationships-with-re-sellers http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-important-things-to-keep-... The gist of the answer was your relationship with a reseller should be one of mutual respect and shared success and typical discounts to a reseller should in the 20-25% range on the low end for an established product and perhaps as high as 40% if the re-seller will invest a lot in marketing and commit to buying very large quantities upfront.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
JumpCrisscross 13y ago
I used to answer questions on Quora. Hacker News has captured the bulk of that free time. But I still post my esoteric questions on Quora. For example, asking about the source of a Manhattan smoke plume [1], the species of a bird I spotted on a walk [2]. [1] https://www.quora.com/New-York-City/What-does-the-smoke-NYC-building-periodically-puke-out-come-from https://www.quora.com/New-York-City/What-does-the-smoke-NYC-... [2] https://www.quora.com/Birds/What-is-this-bird https://www.quora.com/Birds/What-is-this-bird
mccr8 13y ago
There's nothing particularly technically focused about Quora's content. I think of it as a sort of directed mini-blogging site, where instead of being oriented around following everything that a person said (though you can do that to an extent), it is oriented around following particular topics you are interested in. It is a good source for little entertaining essays pontificating about various topics.
nilkn 13y ago
There are a lot of questions that can't be asked on StackOverflow, especially ones that don't necessarily have a right or wrong answer. HN is more focused on sharing news and less on asking questions, especially potentially silly ones. On Quora, you can ask basically anything. It's like Yahoo! Answers, but with a much better interface. It's a lot easier to ask a question on Quora than a place like reddit because you don't have to worry about finding the "correct" subreddit. Make a mistake with the wrong subreddit and you'll just be instantly downvoted and get nothing but joke responses. That said, the site does have a Sillicon Valley "I want to be rich" twist to it, and I think it's necessary for that tendency to die off for the site to succeed in the long run. Far too many times have I looked at Quora only to see a lot of threads about getting rich, what's it like being rich, what would you do it you got rich overnight, what's it like to date someone richer than you, how do I be rich without being arrogant, etc.
not_paul_graham 13y ago
There is a place for Quora because it has helped build a community of users that provide extremely valuable advice / answers in a nicely presented format. I'd pay atleast $10 USD per month to save Quora if there ever was need for it. Unlike reddit or yahoo answers, answers are often provided by real members as opposed to hollow or anonymous accounts and it also serves as a collective wisdom center for past experiences of other humans that you can refer to. I'm unsure what the correct mix is, but Quora is at the sweet spot of: twitter + r/askreddit + yahoo answers + ask HN -> Want to know how to transition from engineer to a job at a VC firm? Well you have folks like Leo Polovets (Current VC, early Linkedin employee /Engineer at Google, Factual) provide extremely detailed answers that are well written and more or less permanent. You know the dude is qualified and is somewhat credible [0]. -> Want to know how Stripe got its name? Well you are in luck because Stripe CTO tells you exactly how [1]. -> Where else can you ask about the evolutionary purpose of menstruationand get a response from a PhD in Zoology? You know its on Quora [2] (unless you want to get trolled on reddit). [0] http://www.quora.com/How-does-one-move-from-being-an-engineer-to-a-job-at-a-venture-capital-firm http://www.quora.com/How-does-one-move-from-being-an-enginee... [1] http://www.quora.com/Stripe-company/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name http://www.quora.com/Stripe-company/How-did-Stripe-come-up-w... [2] http://www.quora.com/Menstruation/What-is-the-evolutionary-or-biological-purpose-of-having-periods http://www.quora.com/Menstruation/What-is-the-evolutionary-o...
smackfu 13y ago
One of their killer features is the weekly email digest. Find questions that have good answers, and then promote them to users who have said they are interested in that type of content.
pbreit 13y ago
The gates are an important component in how Quora has inexplicably managed to get people like Marc Andreesen and JJ Abrams to participate. I'm not sure why you feel Quora is so tech oriented. I see far more non-tech content like entertainment, politics, society, parenting, etc. Instead of belittling something that boggles your mind [in its success], maybe you should look at it for clues on how to be successful.

by yalogin 13y ago

wiremine 13y ago

> The only niche I can think of is generic technical advise. I think that's their main thrust at this point. However, I've recently seen Q&As regarding my home town: - What are the best restaurants? - What is parking like? - What are the hidden gems in the city? - Etc. The quality of the answers is higher than what you'd see on Yahoo Answers, and more timely. So, I can envision a Quora that is valuable outside of technical questions. But that assumes they can retain the quality and keep the timeliness, IMHO. To use SO as an example: StackOverflow is running into the timeliness issue: I've been building a Rails 4 app recently, and a LOT Of SEO questions are out-of-date on. I can google around that problem due to my professional needs, but I doubt a general Q&A site would retain an audience in the long-term if the same problem emerged.

pmorici 13y ago

"Hackernews should have been the correct place for generic tech advise but we don't see questions of that nature here." In my experience HN isn't a great place to ask questions like that, at least not any more. I tried to post an "Ask HN" question about pricing hardware and working with re-sellers the other day. First, under a newly created account so I could share more details; that submission was immediately killed I assume as a preventative measure against spam. So then I posted a much more generic version asking the same question under my typical username it floated to the bottom of the new page w/o getting any votes or responses. So I went over to Quora posted the same thing anonymously and had a reasonable answer and pointers to things to read up on in a couple hours. I like HN and have been reading it regularly for years but it isn't a replacement for Quora

yalogin 13y ago
Its a shame. This is exactly the group of people that could guide you in the correct direction. But I guess that is a lot to share for companies. I for one would have loved to see answers to that question myself. Did you post it on Quora and did you get any responses there? If so can you paste the link here?
- pmorici 13y ago
  Yes, http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-important-things-to-keep-in-mind-when-negotiating-relationships-with-re-sellers http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-important-things-to-keep-... The gist of the answer was your relationship with a reseller should be one of mutual respect and shared success and typical discounts to a reseller should in the 20-25% range on the low end for an established product and perhaps as high as 40% if the re-seller will invest a lot in marketing and commit to buying very large quantities upfront.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

JumpCrisscross 13y ago

I used to answer questions on Quora. Hacker News has captured the bulk of that free time. But I still post my esoteric questions on Quora. For example, asking about the source of a Manhattan smoke plume [1], the species of a bird I spotted on a walk [2]. [1] https://www.quora.com/New-York-City/What-does-the-smoke-NYC-building-periodically-puke-out-come-from https://www.quora.com/New-York-City/What-does-the-smoke-NYC-... [2] https://www.quora.com/Birds/What-is-this-bird https://www.quora.com/Birds/What-is-this-bird

mccr8 13y ago

There's nothing particularly technically focused about Quora's content. I think of it as a sort of directed mini-blogging site, where instead of being oriented around following everything that a person said (though you can do that to an extent), it is oriented around following particular topics you are interested in. It is a good source for little entertaining essays pontificating about various topics.

nilkn 13y ago

There are a lot of questions that can't be asked on StackOverflow, especially ones that don't necessarily have a right or wrong answer. HN is more focused on sharing news and less on asking questions, especially potentially silly ones. On Quora, you can ask basically anything. It's like Yahoo! Answers, but with a much better interface. It's a lot easier to ask a question on Quora than a place like reddit because you don't have to worry about finding the "correct" subreddit. Make a mistake with the wrong subreddit and you'll just be instantly downvoted and get nothing but joke responses. That said, the site does have a Sillicon Valley "I want to be rich" twist to it, and I think it's necessary for that tendency to die off for the site to succeed in the long run. Far too many times have I looked at Quora only to see a lot of threads about getting rich, what's it like being rich, what would you do it you got rich overnight, what's it like to date someone richer than you, how do I be rich without being arrogant, etc.

not_paul_graham 13y ago

There is a place for Quora because it has helped build a community of users that provide extremely valuable advice / answers in a nicely presented format. I'd pay atleast $10 USD per month to save Quora if there ever was need for it. Unlike reddit or yahoo answers, answers are often provided by real members as opposed to hollow or anonymous accounts and it also serves as a collective wisdom center for past experiences of other humans that you can refer to. I'm unsure what the correct mix is, but Quora is at the sweet spot of: twitter + r/askreddit + yahoo answers + ask HN -> Want to know how to transition from engineer to a job at a VC firm? Well you have folks like Leo Polovets (Current VC, early Linkedin employee /Engineer at Google, Factual) provide extremely detailed answers that are well written and more or less permanent. You know the dude is qualified and is somewhat credible [0]. -> Want to know how Stripe got its name? Well you are in luck because Stripe CTO tells you exactly how [1]. -> Where else can you ask about the evolutionary purpose of menstruationand get a response from a PhD in Zoology? You know its on Quora [2] (unless you want to get trolled on reddit). [0] http://www.quora.com/How-does-one-move-from-being-an-engineer-to-a-job-at-a-venture-capital-firm http://www.quora.com/How-does-one-move-from-being-an-enginee... [1] http://www.quora.com/Stripe-company/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name http://www.quora.com/Stripe-company/How-did-Stripe-come-up-w... [2] http://www.quora.com/Menstruation/What-is-the-evolutionary-or-biological-purpose-of-having-periods http://www.quora.com/Menstruation/What-is-the-evolutionary-o...

smackfu 13y ago

One of their killer features is the weekly email digest. Find questions that have good answers, and then promote them to users who have said they are interested in that type of content.

pbreit 13y ago

The gates are an important component in how Quora has inexplicably managed to get people like Marc Andreesen and JJ Abrams to participate. I'm not sure why you feel Quora is so tech oriented. I see far more non-tech content like entertainment, politics, society, parenting, etc. Instead of belittling something that boggles your mind [in its success], maybe you should look at it for clues on how to be successful.