[mindcrime]

> Honest question does anyone still use Quora?

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.

[tokenadult]

What topics do you look up on Quora? Do you have any way to check Quora answers for accuracy?

[binaryqueen]

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.

[mindcrime]

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.

[JetSpiegel]

> perhaps see a competitor come along and displace them who are committed to a more open model

You talk like Stack Overflow and it's sister sites don't exist!

I want whatever you're having.

[thomasfoster96]

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.

[mindcrime]

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.