Honest question does anyone still use Quora? It seems more about being an ego contest than actually answering questions. They are definitely not the "library of Alexandria"... they far far from that.
I have used Quora for many questions and have received extremely useful and valuable answers from people. I once posted a question about how a current was flowing through a particular circuit and I found a couple people who weighed in and helped me understand. I've also asked a specific question about how the dragon docks with the ISS and got an answer from Robert Frost which was really enlightening! I asked how the Hubble is able to take long exposure pictures of galaxies while whirling around the earth at 17,000 mph? I have asked tons of questions on Quora, and generally find value in the answers I receive.
I realize your experience on Quora depends on what your interests are, and the type of questions you ask and search for. This determines the types of people and answers you come across. So everyone has a different experience based on what you do on the site and your interests.
From the questions I've searched for, and the questions I've asked, I've come across really great people who have provided me with helpful information and insights.
There are many questions that arise that searching google doesn't help. For this I need to pose the question to people, not a search box. There are many communities on the internet I can go to pose the question and Quora is a really useful one.
I do wish Quora would change the policy to let anyone benefit from and read the answers.
I've never actually used it. Every time I've followed a link there, I get a popup telling me I have to register before seeing any content, which I've refused to do.
That's been my experience. The few times I've seen a link because someone actually set it up correctly I was disappointed when I got to the actual content.
I wonder why they keep insisting on this obstacle. It possibly serves well as an audience selector. People who are too impatient to sign up should possibly be excluded from the user base that the founders of Quora have in mind.
I've been a Top Writer two years but I hardly use it anymore, apart from clearing notifications every now and then. Moderation on the site is having major growing pains, plus more open access to content seems to have been loosely promised for years but nothing has ever eventuated. Ego contest is accurate in more cases than it should be.
I'm probably going to copy a lot of my better answers on there and republish them on my own blog.
Absolutely. Every day. Quora is one of my top most visited sites. While I don't disagree with all of the criticism of Quora, I find it a terrific resource, and - for now anyway - I'm willing to tolerate the negatives because there is so much good content there.
Of course as an Open Web advocate I'd like to see them operate in a more open manner, or perhaps see a competitor come along and displace them who are committed to a more open model. But in the meantime, I find Quora immensely valuable.
I use quora as a reader and it's really fun. I am very particular about my feed and make sure I follow folks who don't clutter them with topics I find irrelevant.
I highly recommend following folks whose interests align with yours. Also following topics those interests correspond to. Like for eg: I really love learning more about space/planetary science and following Robert Frost (from NASA) has given me wealth of information. Good answers are visual and easy to understand. That's the value of Quora for me. There are people with credible backgrounds answering problems in their domain. (There is also a debate on generalists vs experts answering.. oh well anyway)
For me:
I use stack overflow/exchange for getting precise technical answers to my day to day problems.
I use Quora for exploring in my free time. But my feed is very tailored to topics I like. Otherwise it gets cluttered with generic psychology, lifestyle based questions.
Wow, that's tough to answer. I'd almost have to write an essay to do it justice. But the quick and dirty is "I look up a LOT of topics", where some are related to professional interests, some to hobby interests, and some that are just random crap (like the atheism vs. religion topics, etc.)
Accuracy? Most of what I want from Quora doesn't depend on the answers being "accurate" as such. Usually the answers I value are things like:
* Pointers / links to handy resources
* Mentions of new software, projects, papers, etc. that I wasn't previously familiar with
* Discussion of life experiences / subjective feelings
* Competitors making their presence known by answering questions in the "Who are the top vendors for X?" mold.
IOW, I'm not going to Quora for stuff that I'd go to Wikipedia for. If I want to know the annual production of Pecans in North America in 2012, I go to Wikipedia. If I want to find out what a lot of the vendors in the Enterprise Social Software space are saying about themselves and their competitors, I go to Quora. Or if I want to read about cool new Open Source projects, I read the newest answers to Quora questions like "What are the top Open Source projects in Machine Learning", etc.
Of course, for most any of those topics Quora isn't my only source. It's just a handy place I can go during the day, spend a few minutes there, and find at least a handful of interesting discussions that I'm going to learn something from. In that regard, it's like another Hacker News, just different.
I think people find the separation of the Stack Exchange network a little complicated. On Quora, you can make a new topic in seconds. On Stack Exchange opening up a newer area of discussion isn't so instant.
But yes, Stack Exchange sites easily beat Quora in the quality of answers where Stack Exchange has an established site, it's just that Quora has a wider range of topics.
You talk like Stack Overflow and it's sister sites don't exist!
No, it's just that I don't think of Stack Overflow (and sister sites) as filling the same niche as Quora. I mean, yeah, OK, they do "compete" to some extent, sure. But at least in my mind, I go to SO and SE sites for different kinds of discussions than what I go to Quora for.
I'm happy that SO / SE sites are more Open Web friendly, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see a site, styled after Quora, that is so as well.
Well, the author claims that quora is no longer blocking the answers, but my self-taught filters always tell me to avoid clicking on their links because of their free account 'paywall'
I never click on Quora links for exactly this reason. If I hadn't read this anti Quora piece I would never have considered clicking on a link in the future.
My main consumption of its content is through their weekly email digest, and I have to say, it generally piques my interest enough that I click through and read a bunch of articles I might ordinarily never have gone and looked for.
I used Quora a few years ago when it was explained to me that it was a good way to grow your own brand if you have expertise on a subject. Not sure if growing your brand is still a big motivating factor why people post content there, and if it is, hopefully users are made aware.
Otherwise I just haven't felt it superior to my normal way of finding answers and learning things. If not Wikipedia, Subreddits are troves of good, expert information.
And yes, the Library of Alexandria comparison is a little insulting to humanity.
The noise far outweighs the signal, but a lot of the signal is fantastic in my opinion. I think a lot of my enjoyment comes from the 'straight from the horses mouth' situations, where popular names answer questions that only they really know the answer to.
The discussions in a lot of the programming questions I find absolutely terrible.
I realize your experience on Quora depends on what your interests are, and the type of questions you ask and search for. This determines the types of people and answers you come across. So everyone has a different experience based on what you do on the site and your interests.
From the questions I've searched for, and the questions I've asked, I've come across really great people who have provided me with helpful information and insights.
There are many questions that arise that searching google doesn't help. For this I need to pose the question to people, not a search box. There are many communities on the internet I can go to pose the question and Quora is a really useful one.
I do wish Quora would change the policy to let anyone benefit from and read the answers.