I’m sure you‘ll love to read these answers. Happy reading!

December 31, 2013 9:13 AM

What are Quora's best answers of 2013 so far?
posted by andoatnp (26 comments total)

Including an answer by MeFi's own grumblebee!
posted by yaymukund at 9:56 AM on December 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

This is a fascinating rabbit-hole of a post. The Michelle Obama answer is fantastic, as is Ashton Kutcher's story on how he prepped to play Steve Jobs.
posted by jbickers at 10:00 AM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Fixed the link to not requirea login and then added a missing h - carry on.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:04 AM on December 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

Oh fer pity's sake I'm not getting shit done today. Thanks!
posted by Mooski at 10:08 AM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Before I clicked on the link: This is going to be a great way to pass the next couple of hours.
After I clicked on the link: See everybody in 2014. Even you, Howland and Baker islands. Even you.
posted by that silly white dress at 10:22 AM on December 31, 2013

Dear Quora,
Why are some answerer's names displayed in bold type, and some are not?
posted by Ratio at 10:30 AM on December 31, 2013

It's God's Mod's work you're doing, jessamyn, thank you.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:49 AM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is my favorite so far.
posted by Elly Vortex at 10:53 AM on December 31, 2013

272. What is the difference between Quora and AskMe?

Quora has 271 top questions, but not a single one of them covers favorite recipes.
posted by storybored at 11:02 AM on December 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

This barista knows more about compassion than some pastors.
posted by straight at 11:03 AM on December 31, 2013 [8 favorites]

This is a fantastic.
posted by psoas at 11:04 AM on December 31, 2013

Q: What turns people off about Quora?
A: Quora's intellectualism works against it and allows misinformation to spread.

Uhhhhh nope. I can't speak for everyone who doesn't use Quora, but what turns me off is their real name policy and their requirement that you sign up as a member before you can browse the site. And it's a shame, because there's some wonderful stuff on Quora.
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:15 AM on December 31, 2013 [25 favorites]

Uhhhhh nope.

But, to be fair, the rest of that answer is basically correct; it's just that he's using the word "intellectualism" to mean, well, the opposite of intellectualism:

The Malcolm Gladwell effect is very strong on Quora, and cute, just-so stories with a hint of intellectual flair dominate regardless of their inaccuracies.

I'm going to choose, by way of example, something that will surely annoy others, but the most highly upvoted answer on Quora, Oliver Emberton's answer to Procrastination: How do I get over my bad habit of procrastinating? sounds great but is just flat out bad neuroscience....

It's a very popular way of writing that appeals to intellectuals which means answers with that flavor do very well on Quora: a site that prides itself on its intellectualism.
posted by escabeche at 11:29 AM on December 31, 2013 [6 favorites]

Hey, I'm on that list too! Neato. I wonder who the MeFites on Quora are.
posted by annekate at 12:48 PM on December 31, 2013

I've decided I'm more glad than irritated that quora requires a login even to browse (and I don't have one) because I already waste enough time on the Internet.
posted by rtha at 12:50 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

That was really interesting, though a couple of answers erked me a little bit. Also, Quora users have almost as high an opinion of themselves as we do!
posted by Think_Long at 1:24 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the answer to "what's bad about communism?" by the Vice Chairman of the DC Republican Party is, um, very... definite. No waffling in his answer at all.
posted by fatbird at 3:02 PM on December 31, 2013

I've looked at only one answer so far, and it is absolutely terrible:

Jim Gordon's answer to:
Gold: How does the earth develop gold?

Actually, the Earth probably doesn't develop or create gold or any elements (except insofar as humans cause nuclear fusion reactions.)

CREATION OF ELEMENTS

The Earth's internal nuclear processes may create some atoms, but it's more likely that the Earth's atoms of gold (and all sorts of elements) were created in our Sun's nuclear fusion reaction (skipping over the Big Bang discussion of how the Solar System was created.)
...

For some time, the reigning view of the origin of all the heavy metals has been that they're produced in supernovas, but recently a promising new contender has emerged:

For many years, scientists had theorized that the heavy elements of the periodic table, such as gold, platinum, lead and uranium, had their origin in supernova explosions. But an astronomical observation in June has produced evidence that such metals come from something even more exotic: the collisions of ultra-dense objects called neutron stars.
...

And not only that, Gordon seems to be laboring under the misimpression that the elements that make up the Earth were synthesized in the Sun and then somehow spewed out to form the Earth, whereas both Earth and Sun were evidently formed from different parts of the same planetary nebula, and there has been very little exchange of material since that formation.

I had no idea Quora is this bad.
posted by jamjam at 3:13 PM on December 31, 2013 [4 favorites]

I am hoping somebody at Quora tracks the fact that every time I visit the site their shitty UI "wizard" prevents me from seeing the content I want, that I click a couple things until I realize it is forcing me into tasks I didn't want to do, and I leave the site before seeing any content.
posted by idiopath at 3:44 PM on December 31, 2013 [9 favorites]

It's all about the arc for Quora top answers.

Problem -> Solution -> Resolution

That and the super gross bullshit I have to go through to read more than one answer on the site makes me feel quite often like my time would be better spent reading large print readers digest in the bathroom instead.
posted by oceanjesse at 4:55 PM on December 31, 2013 [3 favorites]

Clicking on the link with mobile still spits me to a sign in page. Nope, not signing in. Should be sleeping anyhow.
posted by nat at 7:06 PM on December 31, 2013

Here is my best-of list, which is totally idiosyncratic to my tastes, but maybe you'll find some posts you like on it.

If you can't read a post because it requires a login, just add ?share=1 to the end of the url and bob's your uncle.
posted by grumblebee at 9:35 PM on December 31, 2013 [9 favorites]

grumblebee: I have a login. But at some point they decided I can't see content without performing UI steps that I don't want to take. share=1 does not help with that. They don't even give me the option of logging out, everything but their stupid "next step" is inaccessible in the UI, and there is no opt out or skip option.

For some stupid reason I find this extremely insulting. I am going to delete their cookie so share=1 works and never log in there again, thanks.
posted by idiopath at 9:26 AM on January 1, 2014

I think water is transparent because eyes first evolved in water.
posted by maggieb at 11:23 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

idiopath, I don't really know what you're referring to (nothing like that has ever happened to me), but I'm an (volunteer) admin on Quora and I'm friendly with the Quora employees. If you happen to care enough about this to give me more details (you can PM me if you want), I'll forward them to the developers. I know this sort of thing is frustrating as all fuck, but I doubt they intended to insult you.
posted by grumblebee at 3:21 PM on January 1, 2014

By they way, make sure you add ?share=1 to the end of urls and not just share=1. The question mark is important.
posted by grumblebee at 3:22 PM on January 1, 2014