Quora, You Are So Hot Right Now

Nerds love Quora – a user generated content site that focuses on posting questions and answers within a multitude of topics. It’s all the rage right now with the early-adopter social/technophile set (like yours truly). Some are predicting that Quora will be the next big thing in 2011.

Quora is a community that relies primarily on users interacting with each other around questions and topics

I’ve been using Quora since its early days, and, for the most part, have enjoyed my interactions with other users—thoughtfully asking and answering questions. There are some interesting and innovative UI elements, from the question submission process to the way the site’s content is continually auto-updating. Not to mention, they have done an outstanding job on their mobile website. Overall, it’s a great community worthy of the acclaim and attention.

User experience aside, it’s important to note that Quora is a community that relies primarily on users interacting with each other around questions and topics. Early on, Quora consisted of people within the tech start-up and social media community…smart, articulate, thoughtful people. As the community gains traction and members via an increased amount of media attention, that user base will obviously become more diverse.

The Circle of Life – Why Quora is Doomed

Quora is a 21st Century message board. Sure there are some UI enhancements, but it’s a multi-topic discussion forum. Anyone who has been involved with online discussion forums for a while knows that the community is only as good as its members. Eventually, these online communities tend to deteriorate as the user base grows, spammers take note, and the original members move on to greener pastures.

Facebook and Twitter are different beasts altogether. Members have strict controls over their network, interactions and content updates that they see. While spam is still an issue (more so on Twitter) these controls have allowed those websites to grow far beyond the scale of a typical discussion forum. Quora does not currently have the same benefit. This dooms Quora to be the Yahoo! Answers of 2011.

Since it’s the time of year for predictions, here’s mine as it relates to Quora: Lots of new faces will join. Spammers will begin to infiltrate. The value of the content and interactions will quickly deteriorate. The original members will move on, and 2012 will be the year we talked about how Quora went wrong.

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