I'm thinking of leaving Yahoo Answers for Quora. What do you think?

Question

Ok, so here's the reason. I'm sick of report monkeys, and dumb questions like "What looks more real, a photo or the mirror?" and "Why is my Polaroid Instax not working".

Been having a look at Quora for the last couple of days, and it seems to be quite nice. They also appreciate long detailed answers, and have an active camera/photography section. Ok so they still have some dumb questions but they usually get voted down, and buried deeper, and end up unanswered. Another plus is that the questioner doesn't get to choose best answer.

Also the website doesn't seem to break down so often, and you can change your ID picture.

Anybody interested in leaving this quagmire that Y!A has become. Or has anybody tried Quora?

What do think? Time to ditch Yahoo perhaps?

Answer 1

It's been incredibly quiet on here of late. I noticed it a while ago; typically if I looked in the morning there used to be up to fifteen, twenty new questions / threads; now there are maybe five or six (and at least half of them are verbatim repeats: which camera should I buy, why do I look bad in my selfie lol omg, which camera does Useless Celebrity So-and-So use?)



I like to use this place to answer (genuine) questions rather than ask them, but the few times I've asked, I've had excellent answers. I think there's a small group of genuinely enthusiastic, articulate photographers here who, while they don't always agree with one another, can always be relied on to provide accurate answers to technical and artistic questions. I would have put BK in that group but I can understand when someone gets tired of an online community. It's happened to me before.



I'll have to check out this Quora place though...maybe we'll get an exodus going!

Answer 2

Quora is a new on me, but I will take a look. A funny thing about this site is that anytime there is a discussion about how stupid and a huge waste of time it is, those same people keep coming back. Quite a conundrum. I have been here several years, and there have always been idiotic questions. There are definite trends to the lunacy. For a long time it was the "how do it make one part of a photo color and the rest black and white". One after the other after the other. The "why do I look different in the mirror compared to my selfies" nonsense seems to never end. The inane "name my business" questions are still here, but at least down in quantity somewhat. "I just got my DSLR and want to shoot weddings" never fails to get people upset". Then of course, there are the questions that could easily be answered if people were not too damn lazy / stupid to read their camera owner's manual. The totally senseless one line "questions" from what are always new users seem to be a rather recent occurrence that was not seen years ago.



Do what I have done. You don't have to come to any hard and fast decision to leave YA. I just spend MUCH less time here than in the past. If I have NOTHING else to do, I will stop in here at times, usually just for amazement at how moronic people can be. I throw far more sarcastic "answers" to the idiots now than any really serious answer, .... because there is simply so few intelligent questions to answer.



With all the negatives of this place, there HAVE been some positives. I have met a few really great people who actually want to learn and have made very good progress over time. Some of them have totally stopped coming here for answers and just email me personally, which is satisfying.



I say keep YA open to visit from time to time. Forget thinking about it as a serious photography question and answer forum. You want a truly great forum? Go to Photo.net. Approach YA as nothing but a place to shake your head in astonishment at the stupidity in the world and nothing more, ... and when it gets too much to take, just stay away a while.

Answer 3

B K... you are absolutely spot on about the slew of asinine questions being posted here as of late. Yeah, I'm going to check out Quora, too. There are a handful of knowledgeable posters here (for example, you, Larry, fhotoace...) that I enjoy reading and it's a shame that totally irrelevant questions are left on the boards... rather than having a way of eliminating them Thanks for the suggestion (regarding Quora).

Answer 4

Why do you need a reason to leave or stay? I for one will miss your comments, I have always appreciated your comments, you have been spot on for most of your answers. I have to agree with you about the stupid questions, it seems like people here are getting dumber and dumber, along with their questions. I have had a few different accounts on here over the past six years or so. I found that just a few people here that know what they are talking about.



Your honest answers will be missed, but sometimes we have to move on... I have been thinking about leaving here too, as it has made me cynical and my answers have not been as nice as they used to be. I get so irritated by the stupid questions that common sense could answer, or a quick search in any search engine would answer.



Maybe I will see you there, going there now to take a look, thanks for the heads up, maybe my attitude will change too (hopefully).

Answer 5

Granted that science is loaded with homework questions, vegetarian cooking is all about people telling each other what they should eat - both sides - and business has how to make money online at least once a day. But sad to say that your question belongs in the same league. Who ever said you have to "leave" answers in order to visit another site? Does your browser only recognize one webpage?

Answer 6

I didn't realize they created Yahoo just for you.

Answer 7

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Bye Bye.

Answer 8

Use both. Get double the responses.