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I write a lot on Quora and respectfully disagree with OP here. I like the fact that I can delete my questions or answers from time to time. It's my content. N

by tyang 12y ago

I write a lot on Quora and respectfully disagree with OP here. I like the fact that I can delete my questions or answers from time to time. It's my content. Not the Internet's. If I change my mind about something I wrote, I want to be able to edit it and delete it. Some of my best answers are ones I edited many times over time. I use Quora and its readers to help me improve and correct my answers. The first draft is often not that great. Quora reduces the risk for me to submit my answer and post it. I understand there are other sites where my content would be more public and permanent and I share on there too. But I often write and re-write on Quora before sharing my content to other sites.

jtheory 12y ago
This makes sense; but it's also not quite what's under discussion. No one's asking for you to be no longer able to edit questions. If Quora went offline, archive.org by default would show the last-archived version of that page -- i.e., your final, edited answer. It would also let people roll back and see previous versions of that page -- which Quora also lets them do. If you realize you wrote a response that on second thought you want deleted, you can currently delete it from Quora directly. If archive.org were allowed access, you'd have to also request deletion from there, but you're allowed to do that as well. I agree that it's your content, not the internet's, and archive.org generally agrees with that too; but they're interested in rescuing the data that should be rescued, if Quora goes offline tomorrow. With them currently blocked, if you don't have local copies of your best, carefully-edited answers, they'll just be gone if Quora's business model doesn't work out.
- tyang 12y ago
  Wasn't aware one could ask archive.org to delete one's content, so thanks for that. Still worth it for me to have Quora be somewhat "closed." Because my initial answers aren't so public and the signal to noise ratio in the comments to my answers is higher than other places. I get a lot of reverse inquiry from folks who find me on Twitter, where I share a lot of Quora content. So I don't care that much that Quora isn't that searchable on Google, etc. Quora works great for some of us. Quora's not for everyone. Neither is Facebook (teens dropping like flies), reddit (low percentage of women), etc.

by tyang 12y ago

jtheory 12y ago

This makes sense; but it's also not quite what's under discussion. No one's asking for you to be no longer able to edit questions. If Quora went offline, archive.org by default would show the last-archived version of that page -- i.e., your final, edited answer. It would also let people roll back and see previous versions of that page -- which Quora also lets them do. If you realize you wrote a response that on second thought you want deleted, you can currently delete it from Quora directly. If archive.org were allowed access, you'd have to also request deletion from there, but you're allowed to do that as well. I agree that it's your content, not the internet's, and archive.org generally agrees with that too; but they're interested in rescuing the data that should be rescued, if Quora goes offline tomorrow. With them currently blocked, if you don't have local copies of your best, carefully-edited answers, they'll just be gone if Quora's business model doesn't work out.

tyang 12y ago
Wasn't aware one could ask archive.org to delete one's content, so thanks for that. Still worth it for me to have Quora be somewhat "closed." Because my initial answers aren't so public and the signal to noise ratio in the comments to my answers is higher than other places. I get a lot of reverse inquiry from folks who find me on Twitter, where I share a lot of Quora content. So I don't care that much that Quora isn't that searchable on Google, etc. Quora works great for some of us. Quora's not for everyone. Neither is Facebook (teens dropping like flies), reddit (low percentage of women), etc.