Real Info... (or just an excuse for Ads)

[GlennSprigg]

I've been a member of Quora for quite a few years now. To the uninitiated, it is a huge
technical Forum, covering virtually every subject. Those of us that can answer specific questions,
in specific fields, attempt to do so.  However, I feel a bit *anti* about their *purpose* as of late ??

One can not apply for, but has to be *invited* (as I recently was) to be a member of their...
"Quora Partner Program"... which basically requires me to Ask lots of pseudo meaningful questions,
that... "People may typically Ask"... (as opposed to what *I* may want to know!)... And why ...

Because they want to include lots of Advertising within such questions & answers, and they *promise*
you a monetary gain into your PayPal account for doing this ...  Here's my problem...

Google foe example, is not a charity!  All their profits are about Advertising, and costing people/companies
so many cents/dollars! per Click as a result of peoples Searches. Quora is now trying to do the same, by
monitoring *clicks* on such inter-dispersed Ads. OK... They need funding. However, to me, it seems like
they don't care what possibly phoney questions are asked, only that it is drawing Revenue !!!
I'm not sure I want to participate at that level, beyond the REAL answers I used to give ?

[JPortici]

I have yet to see a page from the Quora website that isn't an ad or sponsored content

[Gregg]

Glenn,

Google foe example, is not a charity!

What a great Freudian slip, we should all start calling them “Google foe”

I had similar experiences with Fixya and after helping lots of people they made me a type of moderator but then expected me to do more to increase clicks to new pages rather than continue thread like responses.  It was clear that they merely wanted more ad coverage and less actual help from volunteers that were donating time and effort.  Totally selfish click-bait driven troll like business model; hoping to be bought out by a big player at the expense of people trying to provide actual help so I told them to “go pound sand”
It is just best to just ignore this type of internet lack of content.

[MrMobodies]

I had similar experiences with Fixya
It was clear that they merely wanted more ad coverage and less actual help from volunteers that were donating time and effort. 
Totally selfish click-bait driven troll like business model;

I remember Fixya and the links were not even related to the description.
It was clickbait just like ExpertExchange and the poor comment hiding thing which could be bypassed at the time by simply turning off javascript.

I don't remember seeing the ads but just a load of rubbish that I accidentally clicked on searching or was it the same thing.

I think I blocked Fixya for a while on the firewall to prevent me from accidentally clicking on another one of their links that would lead me around in circles.
They were on the top of a lot of my search queries.

[GlennSprigg]

Glenn,

Google foe example, is not a charity!

What a great Freudian slip, we should all start calling them “Google foe”

I had similar experiences with Fixya........

(Your 'Fixya' ref was certainly valid too, Gregg)...

Re:  'Google Foe', you caught me out !!   
Interestingly, (and off topic.. but I wouldn't have it any other way)...
When 'Google' was in it's initial incipient stage, and being created in that ubiquitous 'Garage',
one of the Nerds (affectionately labeled !!) said to his Nerd mate, mid Hi-Maths in the Shed...
"Hey!, what is the name of that really big number that some Scientists son called it ".
Nerd-2 said... "You mean a 'Googol' ??"...  "YES" he said, "that's it", but he mis-heard him.
A 'Googol' is 10 to the power of 100. However, he wrote down 'Google' instead. (And it stuck!).

[Cyberdragon]

Google is a foe, they don't care what they serve up either. As I've mentioned before if I turn off all adblockers I get all manner of BS, everything from whore ads to fake or pirated games to free energy crap (or other scams), right on Youtube. I wouldn't be suprised if it was infected either, there's probably no to very little screening.

[station240]

I hate how much fake content there is on the internet of late.

The fake websites with search engine derived content.
The fake everything created by people who pretend to be experts on something they have no particular skill, training or interest in.
The fake youtube videos created by stealing video off the TV news, then having a computer voice read out a script (also stolen)

Yet the more ads they insert into things, the less people pay attention to them.
In my case, I block ads as they have become a massive drain on CPU resources, internet bandwidth, and are just a massive insult to my intelligence.

PS: no one noticed the problem with calling the site "Experts Exchange", give you a hint, move the space between the two words slightly.