Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
Quora’s first acquisition is Arab Spring instigator’s Q&A site Parlio (techcrunch.com)
24 points by vinod1073 3733 days ago
2 comments

Please, cut it out with the bullshit. This guy played a negligible role in the Arab Spring. The only reason he received the media attention he did was because he held a prominent position at an American company.

Calling him the Arab Spring's instigator is an insult to Egyptian activists and organizers, not to mention the revolutionaries in Tunisia.

Wait, I thought Twitter was the Arab Spring instigator!

No, it was Facebook... oh wait... random Q&A site ;)

Take a fucking look around.

How many people in prominent positions in well known companies open their mouths when there is a obvious stink in the air?

I have massive respect for the guy.

The actual instigator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

Fuck a prominent position. He doesn't have a prominent position, and every single large exec would open their mouth when their entire country is being destroyed.

Fuckin' hell HN. As an Arab, I'm severely disappointed that everyone forgot the reason the Arab Spring started was because a 26 year old burned himself alive because he couldn't afford to live. Not some social media savvy guy from google.

So whats the lesson? To me it's pretty simple. You want change learn to do it the right way. Gandhi, MLK and Mandela didn't burn themselves and get change over night. And guess what, being media savvy is how you make change happen. There are to this day people who will call those three characters the most media savvy men of their time.

If marketing can sell Coke, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian it can be used to sell other things too. Positive things. Constructive things. To pretend without media savvy your message will get out and have influence is highly misguided in this day and age.

What fucking media and marketing are you even talking about? I am a Tunisian citizen and I have never heard of this guy until these last couple of days.
Well I have. And I deeply respect what he is trying to do. It's solution oriented unlike cheap talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwJ0hNl1Fw

He wasn't trying to look down on the guy. He just pointed the obvious; calling this guy the Arab spring instigator is far-fetched.
I don't think so at all. His posts and calls to rally where catalysts that were required.
Yes but he did not instigate the Arab spring. The success of the Tunisian revolution is what set the Egyptian uprise in motion.

He did his part yes but he did not initiate the Arab spring.

As a Tunisian, this.
Does anyone know how Quora plans to make money?
Apparently "...[Quora] is finally preparing to earn some revenue through advertising after 7 years of riding its venture capital."
You should open this as a question on Quora.
Advertising. They're loaded with search traffic. Loyal direct visits not so much. Anyone in Quora, refute me if you want.
Their personalised email digest is outstanding so I would expect this to drive a lot of return visits.
They've been running some "sponsored question" type things recently. Interesting idea, not sure how scalable.