289 karma · joined June 4, 2012
Also, I wanted to browse around the lessons in order to evaluate the quality of the site so that I could decide whether to recommend the site to non-programmer friends.
I think this is a chrome PDF viewer issue. You may want to fix this.
ediT: nevermind. it's working now. After install, it wasn't doing anything upon clicking on the husky icon for several minutes.
edit 2: if I signed in with google already, why am I being asked to signup?
I hate one aspect of email: all the spam/solicitations that websites love to bombard me with. Meetup.com is a particular egregious example, being next to impossible to unsubscribe from.
Also, not all emails are equal. Emails from friends, family, or colleagues are important and should be treated on the same notification level as texts. But notifications emails from spammy websites set off the same notifications. I probably check my phone 90% of the time only to find out someone liked my post on <insert-social-network-here>. It's gotten to the point where I have to use multiple email addresses to register for websites.
My idea: A regulated email exchange. Each email account gets 10-50 tokens. Whenever someone emails you, they attach their token. As recipient, you can then choose whether to return the token or not. Keeping the token means that sender can't send you any more emails until you return the token. Returning the token means you acknowledge the email sender is legitimate and not a spammer.
Also, the less tokens a sender has, the less spammy emails they can send out. When they hit zero tokens, they're effectively dead in the water. The idea is to cut down on all the BS, unnecessary emails and raise the quality of sent emails.
In short: users exchange tokens with other users they want to interact with. users withhold tokens from other users they don't want to interact with. spammy websites have a lot less ammo with which to bombard users with.
However, it is annoying to re-read the same comments I've already read. Sometimes I'll refresh a discussion 5+ times to see the new comments, and it's harder and harder to find where the new comments are located. I suggest that comments posted < 30 minutes before be marked somehow as "new", either through CSS or some visible indicator.
I'm looking to meet startup people in the real world.
From http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4549832 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3275698
it seems that there is a real user desire for this.
Where are you based now?
Just have to make sure customers are not sleeping in the room.
I think it's a tough problem to solve. In the beginning stages of your product, unless it goes viral, you'll be desperate and thankful for any users you can get, although you'd prefer 'normal' users (i'll call them "normies").
The problem with getting normies is that they're incredibly hard to reach. Outside of the tech sphere, few normies have heard of Quora, hacker news, digg, even reddit. Think what % have heard of any other number of less known startups. The answer is probably less than 1% for normies. They don't seek out new experiences online; they'll sign up only if your site goes super-viral, as facebook and twitter did. I think the problem is inherent in Normie behavior - they simply don't have much time to invest in or thought to give to new online startups.
The solution, I believe, is to target a niche community - either local or with a group of people who already socialize with each other. This is a purely an area of execution strategy and is quite fraught with difficulties, imo.
I agree though. Something about the way responders write just rubs me the wrong way. Like everyone is trying their hardest to sound intelligent. It's just not fun and doesn't seem authentic to me the way HN or reddit do.
I think that Quora obviously is loved by many, otherwise it wouldn't have grown to the size it did. But for every wonderful experience you have, I can point to others who've had a poor one. Can we agree that both of us could be right?
Pozium wouldn't be link-based. Users would publish essays or insights or ask questions. Pozium is based around concepts. Not article links.
Sorry I didn't want to go into pozium on HN. I linked to a more articulate description of the vision.
There is certainly humor on Quora. I wasn't sure 'jokes' were appreciated. Your examples show that I was wrong. But then from where did I get that impression that overall the site just felt too serious for me? I don't think they're managing the user experience very well.
Are there lessons to be learned from Quora? I think so. I've thought for a long time about what kind of site I would enjoy spending time on. It would definitely have intellectuals, like Quora has, but they'd need to be more of a reddit or HN variety. Ie. treating each other civilly and unpretentious. I've written up my thoughts here for a new startup that will fill a niche Quora and Wikipedia are not serving:
Wikipedia doesn't allow pages about just any topic. See: Kate Middleton's dress. Also, it's incredibly hard to become a mod for them. Finally, there is no room for self-expression, as editors and contributors are mostly anonymized through its process. So Wikipedia is a great encyclopedia, but not a good place for a discussion.
Quora fills the niche of intelligent communal discussion, only its vision doesn't allow wit, misspellings, anonymity, or humor, and seems to have been taken over by domineering powers-that-be, so much so that the party just isn't fun anymore.
Pozium can attract not only intellectuals, but laymen looking to learn as well. First, there are all the ex-Quorans who were put off by the site. Pozium will be a party of intellectuals who don't have a stick up their behind. You will learn, as well as have fun. Everyone will be able to contribute, and no one will feel shamed or intimidated.
This will attract the second type of user: the more casual intellectual. I remember a post from Quora by this college girl who, while obviously not an Einstein, could still have contributed insights of value. In what seemed to be her last post, the girl said she was intimidated by others and wondered if Quora "was for people like her". So there is a niche being unserved, filled with people like this girl who don't feel welcome. If Quoran's mean IQ is in the 130s and 140s then perhaps the 110-130 IQ crowd is not being served.
Anyone interested in potentially starting something up? Read more here: http://pozium.com
I wanted to like Quora. I really did. Theoretically, Quora should be a wet dream for me: insightful discussions, check. Answers from bright people, check. A place to learn, to read, to spend hours on soaking in information, check. I never could have guessed that spending time on Quora would turn out to be more of a nightmare.
As the article points out, Quora is a dictatorship, which doesn't really care about what the community wants. Which would be fine, except that the dictators don't know what they're doing. Their policies, and the general vibe of the community, just aren't welcoming. I don't contribute to Quora because I self-moderate myself out of posting. Why shouldn't I post? I have insights to contribute, as much as any other person. The problem is that Quora allows so little room for free expression in a world that is crying out for originality. Don't use your real name? Your account is locked and you can't post. Didn't directly address the question? Your answer downvoted into oblivion. Spelled something wrong? Here let me edit your post. The community they've attracted doesn't help either. There are a lot of nice people they've somehow convinced to stay on Quora, but I can't help but get the vibe that a lot of users think they're the sh, and how dare you disagree with them.
The founder of reddit once said that the philosophy he had towards running reddit was like hosting a party - he couldn't just allow users free reign to do whatever they pleased, but he had to make it an inviting and fun place for users. Otherwise the party would suck. Well, if reddit is a fun party with alcohol, humor, entertainment, and cat pictures, along with the occasional smart person to learn from, then Quora is like hanging out with a group of bitter, pretentious intellectuals who wield their answers like weapons, at a party with no alcohol allowed.
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Snark, arrogance, responses that come flying at you. Mainstream people don't want to post on Quora. They're intimidated. One of the insecurities of dumb people is to have their dumb-ness pointed out. In their philosophy to ensure quality answers, they've driven away a lot of potential users.
There are some really intelligent, insightful answers on Quora. There's also a lot of attitude.
The sad thing is, Quora is a wonderful niche site. But since they've taken VC money and there are so many expectations in the startup world, they've put themselves in a tough situation in regards to growth. Though they should probably stick to the 'intelligent professional' niche, they probably need to pickup more mainstream users to justify valuations; but it's hard to go mainstream now with the userbase they've built up.
I have a new vision for a website, targeting those dissatisfied with Quora. You can see it here. http://pozium.com/vision.html