What makes Quora Different and Successful than other Forums?

Ankita
Member • Mar 13, 2014

What makes Quora Different and Successful than other Forums?

Ok. I know that Quora isn't a forum. It is more of a Q&A site. It has questions and answers both contributed by the members. Now, forums have existed on the internet for over a decade. Some forums such as DigitalPoint are really popular and people have been using that kind of "interface" for a long time.

I just want to ask the engineers here, what makes Quora so different and successful than others?

- Is it its easy to use interface? (All that you see when you open the page is the Ask a Question text box)
- Is it the fact that people can vote up answers so members feel awesome that their answer got a lot of backers?
- Is it the fact that most of its members are good, informed people who take time out to contribute valuable answers and not just keep reading and liking content?

Your answers are of value. So, people put in your opinions. 👍

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Chaitanya Kukde

Member • Mar 13, 2014

I guess the quality and variety of answers we see at Quora make it extremely popular. Also the "celebrity people" on Quora add to it's glam quotient and appeal.

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

I agree. But what I really want to discuss with fellow engineers is that, why so people choose to use Quora for contributing the long, descriptive answers that have proper analysis done prior to typing them out.
If you have been following certain questions or topics on Quora, you will find that people seem to go out-of-the-way to help contribute a really good answer.
What is the incentive they have to share answers?
It might be the fact that people "vote up" the answers, but I believe there are better rating systems in existence on other platforms. What is the reason that Quora has a cult status?

I know certain people who logged-on to Quora to appear cool and more informed over their peers.

PS: Sometimes I feel discussions such as this one contribute to Quora's popularity. 😁

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Satya Swaroop Dash

Member • Mar 13, 2014

The reasons for Quora being a bigger success than other Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers, Ask.com are:
- Minimalistic design = Users are not distracted on this website like they do on others.
- Social angle = When your answer gets voted up it gives people a motivation to put more efforts into their answers rather than just posting a link as an answer. Since it allows readers to post their activity on Facebook it can also invite other users to contribute.

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

Quora is US based, where English is the first language. The company also managed to pull a couple of celebrities on Quora to respond to questions. That gave them the initial traction. Indians, who've traditionally followed and adopted everything that was US-born, flocked to the site. I think India continues to be Quora's major user base.

Plus, they are funded and can sustain without advertising on their site. A huge plus point for all the 'geek' community that hates advertisements.

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

By the way, here on CrazyEngineers; I think we've faced two big problems:

1. English
2. Typical 'forum' layout.
3. Advertisements : We still need them to keep going.

However, we are working towards making CE ad-free for everyone. If we decide on keeping ads; they'll be totally relevant and non-intrusive.

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

It goes without saying that answers contributed from our beloved, dedicated members here, can help me understand how we can make our platform a lot better.
I am already noting down a few points on my notepad. You can all expect the site to have a lot more useful features in the coming days.

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

Another feature that I thought someone would point out is -
The ability to "ask" someone to answer your question. Quora displays a list of people that might have answered a related question earlier or are prone to answer yours as they might be following similar category or topic. Users have a facility to use simple buttons to notify these people, requesting them to answer your questions.

I find this concept quite useful. What do you people think?

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

#-Link-Snipped-# So you feel that feature has nothing to do with the popularity? It is just like tagging people who might go that extra mile and answer your queries.

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Chaitanya Kukde

Member • Mar 13, 2014

Ankita Katdare
#-Link-Snipped-# So you feel that feature has nothing to do with the popularity? It is just like tagging people who might go that extra mile and answer your queries.
It's not that it has 'no' hand in Quora's popularity but it's not that a great feature if you ask me... The thing is, people would accept anything bullsh*t that a famous person does or says, but if a normal person does the same thing, the same people would mock and thrash him, figuratively or literally.

What I saw on Quora are the variety of awesome people in India and around the world. They are not necessarily famous, but their answers spark a thought within me nevertheless

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Mar 13, 2014

I think normal (not-famous) people can do wonders when given a proper boost or an incentive they love. It is really quite amusing to see people come out of nowhere on Quora and pop up their super-detailed, interesting answers that are worth sharing. These people are no celebrities. Just people with regular internet and laptop - all in the comfort of their living rooms.

And a bunch of these people attract a lot of crowd. It is quite amusing.

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Chaitanya Kukde

Member • Mar 13, 2014

It is really quite amusing to see people come out of nowhere on Quora and pop up their super-detailed, interesting answers that are worth sharing. These people are no celebrities. Just people with regular internet and laptop - all in the comfort of their living rooms.
^ Exactly 😀

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Abhishek Rawal

Member • Mar 21, 2014

Answer to title of the thread is just a single word - 'Members'. I personally believe stackoverflow is one world better than what quora is.

Ankita Katdare
It goes without saying that answers contributed from our beloved, dedicated members here, can help me understand how we can make our platform a lot better.
CEOM was/is (IDK its current state!) nice initiative. Yeah, the entire system has lot of flaws, and competitors were exploiting it. But, sad thing is rather than iterating the system & trying to make more better, we actually dropped it!
If CEOM & POTM (Project Of The Month) will be brought back & initiated respectively, then we might be able to add life in the forum & technical debates.
'Nuff said.

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Mar 24, 2014

Here is a great answer from members of Quora itself -

#-Link-Snipped-#

Quoting one of it -

Why do people ask questions on Quora to which the answers can be found with a two second Google search?

Google is male. You get an answer.
Quora is female. You get a response.

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