Quora is a social question and answer site in which many of its participants are from the world of tech startups, which makes it a better place to get information than, say,
Yahoo! Answers. When you ask a question on Quora, no matter how silly or misguided or honestly, stupid, you'll get at least one serious answer that has been carefully thought out, and the writer will take pains to provide evidence to back up his or her point of view.
So why would I want to leave?
Because they decided to make
lurking a thing of the past. Now, when you log on, other people on the site can see which questions and answers you've read, and also how you came to the post, whether via email, search or a public stream. Of course, if you don't like it, you can turn it off yourself. However, when something's on by default, most people don't bother to change it.
I like lurking. Although I find comment threads interesting, I rarely participate in discussions because I find doing so exhausting, even when it's enjoyable. I like being able to read freely without having someone know what I am doing, so I don't have other people in my head while consuming. I don't want to have even someone I know come up to me and ask me what I thought of that article that I may have read and forgotten about two weeks ago.
Frankly, do most people even care that much about what their friends are consuming? I know Facebook introduced the whole concept of "frictionless sharing", and people like Robert Scoble are invested in this idea that it somehow makes the Internet better when the entire Internet knows what you had for breakfast, what you read on the toilet, and what you sing in the shower. But honestly? I don't want to know all of that! If I was interested in what you thought about X, I'd have a direct conversation with you about it, whether online or off.
This trend that Facebook started is disturbing, and if it weren't for the fact that I keep in touch with my closest friends via Facebook, I'd have shut it down the day they introduced frictionless sharing. In the meantime, though, I'd rather cut through my social network clutter and eliminate the inessential sites that don't bother to respect the user.
It's too bad, because I have enjoyed my time on Quora. But life is short, and I can live without it.
What You Should Know About Deleting Your Quora Account:
There is no option to delete your Quora account within your account options. In the account options, you have the ability to "deactivate your account", which just means that your account goes silent, but your questions, answers, and anything else you've contributed remain up on the site. However, no one else can actually interact with you.
If you want to actually delete your account, and delete all the content you've contributed, you have to contact privacy@quora.com and provide them with a direct link to your Quora account. My request was processed quite easily, although there was a minor glitch. When I clicked on my link to verify deletion, I found that my account was still up. I replied to the support staff, and they took care of the issue in a timely manner and deleted my account without further delay or questioning.
