In theory like all of its predecessors such as Yahoo Answers and indirect competitors like Quora, Fountain is a great idea, in theory, but in practice we all kn

In theory like all of its predecessors such as Yahoo Answers and indirect competitors like Quora, Fountain is a great idea, in theory, but in practice we all know that it will not go very far. And that is not a reflection of Aaron Patzer's inability to act upon an idea, Mint.com obviously was a big success, however, to me at least, Fountain will fail for one reason and one reason only: people do not like to pay for things on the Internet like this. It is a sad reality that the only thing that really makes money on the internet is e-commerce (online stores), popular subscription based services/games and advertisements. People have built up this image of the Internet being for finding answers to your questions for free. I could be wrong and who am I to say that Aaron can not make this succeed? He obviously has a lot more experience, capital and connections to try and pull something like this off. Adding in the ability to have a chat with someone in many different ways is quite cool, but I would not go as far as calling it groundbreaking or new. The whole premise of a proper Q&A platform and accompanying application is something that this article acknowledges has been done many times before. I think it is a bit sensationalist to say that Quora failed, in my opinion it is thriving. As a regular Quora user I can attest that it is not a Q&A website in the sense of the terms we have come to know. When my dishwasher stops working, I do not ask people on Quora nor do I seek out existing answers on how to fix it. Quora in my opinion is for sharing interesting stories about experiences. Most of my uses are reading interesting questions with interesting answers ranging from drug dealer experiences to physics and more. Some of my favourite Quora questions/answers include: What does it feel like to shoot someone in the line of duty? http://www.quora.com/What-does-it-feel-like-to-shoot-someone-in-the-line-of-duty http://www.quora.com/What-does-it-feel-like-to-shoot-someone... If the world were a cube, how would gravity be different? http://www.quora.com/If-the-world-were-a-cube-how-would-gravity-be-different http://www.quora.com/If-the-world-were-a-cube-how-would-grav... What is it like to be a drug dealer? http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-a-drug-dealer http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-a-drug-dealer I wish Aaron the best of luck with this idea and if it succeeds, I will be the first person here to admit that I was wrong about someone being able to finally crack the big problem of a decent Q&A platform where answers are credible and the consistency and quality of the platform can be maintained as it grows in size.