CS371 Final Project

        Baym and Burgess' approach to platform analysis which they elaborate on in Twitter: a biography, discussed the concept of the ecosystem of devices and services in which a platform is situated and connected. When comparing this approach to Quora, it can be argued that even as university students, we all at some point have come across this website looking for a specific answer. Google, however, is like a gateway to the internet's database , this platform is essentially what redirects users to websites such as Quora where individuals can find the answers that they are looking for. Quora also provides other resources with links which redirect the users to websites or articles that others may have suggested . Although Quora is based upon a social question and answer-based website where people can edit/comment on posts, it is crucial that the users are fact checking such content to ensure their sources are accurate . The ecosystem of devices prevalent th...

Quora is a very easy to navigate and learn app that has a very straightforward home page and app. When signing up on the app you are asked to sign up through your google account, Facebook account, Apple id, or email. Following that where you give your name, you are asked to pick 5 topics that the app will generate a home page based on what you select. This is to engage the users further and start them off on the app with their basic interests before discovering new topics and questions later on in their use of the app. The app's purpose is to engage you with your initial interest in those selected topics to then expand your interests after interacting with the app. On the app, certain buttons are intentionally made larger in order to make you more likely to click them, for example, the ‘answer’ and ‘ask a question’ buttons are large because that is the premise of the app, that is how they get more interactions from users on the app. The app’s business model also gives the option to...

Quora is a very one of a kind app that not only seeks answers to specific questions posed by the users but is incredibly easy to navigate and use. There are other apps that entail the same idea but that isn’t what they specialize in, an example of this would be Reddit but as we know there is far more to Reddit than simply asking questions to other users. In an article by the Guardian, they speak about Quora and the concept of the app and the possible success considering the lack of apps with the same aim as they do (Kiss, Arthur, 2011). Quora is now known as the most popular QnA (questions and answer) website on the internet, and in general, on Quora, the answers have a 97% accuracy (Patil, Lee, 2016). This shows Quora’s success in its simplicity and the idea behind a simple question and answer website. As looked at in our presentation, the app's layout and app are very easy to navigate having easy to follow instructions and features are what makes the app so successful. Upon signi...

  Quora’s main aim is so that consumers are able to easily access free or monetized knowledge while also being able to effortlessly share their knowledge. The ultimate goal of this is to increase the available knowledge to the world. Especially since social media has become such a ubiquitous part of the development of adolescents (Swirsky, J. et al.). As they grow, they will be provided with substantial universal knowledge which will ultimately provide them with more sources to solve issues, conduct research, and overall to learn more. With the many different social behaviours, social goals and values, it is important that the newer generations will be able to understand the values of others and find information that pertains to them. Because social media consumerism is constantly rising, it is crucial to have content that can relate to as many people as possible. Also, Quora’s multiple different outlets like Quora+, Digest, Spaces, etc. provides more opportunity for connection, ul...

Quora is a question answer dataset that provides limited answers of over 100 words to under 1000 words for over 600 different topics. It has implemented two main business models for making money. The first and main one is through advertisements. Like many other social media platforms, Quora will strategically place advertisements so that they appear in the content instead of as an overt ad. This forces consumers to spend more time looking at the advertisement before realizing what it is. They will also track the content consumers use and interact with in order to be able to better target ads towards them. However, CEO Adam D’Angelo stated that ad revenue is not enough to support creators. Therefore they implemented the second business model. This is mainly creating other Quora platforms that stem from the original mainframe. Most notably is Quora+. This is a space where content creators can monetize what they produce. However, they will only get paid if there are a lot of views on thei...

  Blog Post 2   Lee, S., Jang, W., Lee, E., & Oh, S. G. (2016). Search engine optimization: A case study using the bibliographies of LG Science Land in Korea.   Library Hi Tech ,   34 (2), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-02-2016-0014   Nancy Baym describes the backstage of a platform as software, algorithms, and APIs that govern the appearance and operation of the user interface (Baym, 17). Quora’s backstage is the functioning set of rules that the platform follows that engages with the problem-solving needs of all users. More specifically, Quora’s algorithm determines where users rank among others according to its search engine optimization. “SEO in general refers to scientific methods and processes to induce web traffic to websites. It defines structured and goal-driven techniques that would streamline website structures, languages used, site interaction mechanisms, and others, all of which are designed to promote the site to land itself at the top of...

  Blog post 1   Rivlin, G. (2011, April 26).  Does Quora really have all the answers?  Wired. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.wired.com/2011/04/ff-quora/    Nancy Baym describes communicative or expressive content as platform-specific ways in which content is shared (Baym, 17). A platform analysis of Quora, a Q & A communicative platform that allows people to share and grow their knowledge, offers its users to post and share question-based discussion threads that drive its communicative purposes. People come to Quora to ask questions about any subject, read and learn from the personalized high-quality knowledge, and share their knowledge with others. Newspaper article “Does Quora Have All the Answers? from wired deems Quora consists of communicative content that includes much more than casual conversation. “The amount of knowledge that has been poured into the site is phenomenal. Users ask questions about raising capital, or about booting ...

  Quora’s Cultural and Practices Quora is a question-to-answer based website, this means that the production of information is dependent on social interaction. Objectively Quora’s mission is to connect the people who have knowledge to the people who need it, to bring together people with different perspectives. Social affordances in social media often surround the impact information can have and how it can be distributed. In applying Graham Meikle's understanding of capitalizing on the affordances of social media, Quora infrastructure reached their selling point because social interaction was taking place and information was accessible. The platform provides a social environment that is developed through the building blocks of communication and sharing alone. Therefore, being for the cultural and social practices Quora desired. (Cuofano, 2022) As a result of this, the communication style was sharing information through knowledge. This practice not only worked for individual...

  Part 2: Quora’s Cultural Shift (Meme and Humour Culture) Quora’s accepting transition of the application intended use is a very modern outlook and disagrees with Ben Light, Jean Burgess, and Stefanie Duguay’s “environment of expected use” (2016, 889). According to these authors, applications; vision, operating model, and governance is what configures the integration of intended use. Although this initially was the objective for Quora, what changed was governance; “how the app provider seeks to manage and regulate user activity to sustain their operating model and fulfil their vision” (Light et al., 2016, 890). Their vision was no longer the only desire the platform could achieve, users restructured the culture and consequently changed the future vision of Quora. Because users placed the value of exchanging knowledge to a minimum, the meme and entertainment culture was able to flourish. In sequence to this, Quora did not fight their users of this shift. Rather welcomed mechanisms...

  Part 1: Quora’s Cultural Shift (Meme and Humour Culture) More often than not new social media functionalities are significant to its timeframe. For Quora its functionality is still present in today’s social realm, with a slight change from its intended use. The original attributes that Quora derived from were applications pertaining to a question-to-answer based system. This changed from being a strictly informative exchange of knowledge to the exchanges of content being extended to the participation of meme culture. Questions and answers were quickly transformed into engaging humorous questions and/or answers that made fun of the individuals’ lack of knowledge, regarding the posed question. The result of this, made the information side of the platform become tertiary. Allowing for the content of other social media platforms to hand pick, for entertainment culture. Within Aidan Walker’s article they highlight fifthteen questions that users posted that sparked humour from the orig...