Yipikaye Quora! F*ck You and Your F*cking Naming Policy!
I quit Quora way back in 2012, because of endless disputes between an army of Quora admins and me, regarding their ridiculous naming policy. It is shocking to find such an adamant policy in a website this popular. Makes me wonder how Quora managed to put a bunch of lunatics to frame a policy on the internet that forces users to reveal their identities. While it may sound like LinkedIn, there is a marginal difference between services like LinkedIn and Quora. The former business requires an open credibility, which is necessary to connect and network with other people. The latter is just a Q/A network with a great user base whose main objective is to answer questions.
Real names do help in adding credibility to the answers. Most sites recommend and suggest their users to use their real names if they really want to. But what Quora does? Rather than humbly suggesting, they go all Nazis and enforce everyone (except some people like J.J. Abrams, Soleo, and a lot more) on their website to use real names and give up personal information. And if you don’t they start policing you to do so. I don’t understand how is this even legal. Not only that, but the lunatics at Quora also humiliate the ones who don’t use real names on their Quora profile. Anonymity is an integral part of the internet and still, no one at Quora is educated enough to understand this. Or they are just simply ignoring this to focus more on kissing the investors’ bottoms than actually fixing this.
What the heck is a Real Name?
Yeah! The complete expanded name as you see in your IDs or your name that precedes with initials elsewhere. That’s your real name. On some public sites like Wikipedia, and StackExchange sites, I use my real name to maintain a consistent identity to able to easily connect and network with peers within my areas of expertise. Note that, these sites support anonymity and never had asked me for real name or any personal info other than my email. Now, when Quora came out, I used my real name ‘Karthikeyan KC’ – which is also my legal name.
All hell broke loose
A few months later, I received an email from Quora, and a sternly worded message from one of the Quora moderators about the naming policy in detail (a very long message) with a few ‘bold’ paragraphs, emphasizing to rename my existing name ‘Karthikeyan KC’.
My initial reaction was like:
“That IS my name you dumbfucks!” I said and disputed it with the moderator dumbass. He asked for an ID for verification, which I refused to provide. “It’s just a website for crying out loud! Am I being screened for a top-secret project?” I growled on twitter and just expanded the initials and renamed my Quora name as ‘Karthikeyan Chidhambaram’. Two weeks of fun ride, without any issues! Another mod (another brainless idiot) barged into my inbox and questioned me about that missing ‘K’.
Despite my clear explanation about the way we Tamil Nadu people use initials, those imbeciles rendered me as an unverified person and threw my answers deep down in the dungeons of other unverified users. I’d never been humiliated this far and I decided to quit the crappy Quora that instant.
You can have your name back!
As soon as I requested for deletion of my account and the contents (by that time I had over seven hundred followers and more than three hundred answers), an admin sent me an apology message on Quora and persuaded me to stay there with my previous username – ‘Karthikeyan KC’. Though I know about the moderator politics, I decided to give it one last try, at least for the sake of the few answer requests that I loved to answer.
Yipikaye Quora V1
Two weeks later, another admin just put me back in the unverified slot, and that is where I lost my cool and I turned into the Hulk!
I vented out on twitter with some angry tweets to Adam D’Angelo, Charlie Cheever, and Quora Support. None of my tweets were answered. Still, with a burning rage from my humiliation, I wrote an article – ‘Yipikaye Quora’ decimating the entire moderation part, Quora naming policy, and the admins. I was requested to take down the article a few days after by the Quora Support, with another apology. This time, I made it clear to delete my entire account along with its contents. I finally deleted my account along with all my answers.
Yipikaye Quora V2
I’m forced to write this article again as my friend is now experiencing the shame shit!
When he told me that the Quora mods keep un-verifying him, I flashed him, zapped him, and without a second thought, I deleted his account for good. It’s the initials thing all over again. If anyone from Quora sends an email to take down this article, you are going to receive a massive load of ‘fuck you and fuck your naming policy’ posters as a reply.
The point is! Anonymity online is inevitable and whining policies that enforce a real name usage – forces someone to reveal their identity – is a fricking privacy breach and ought to be illegal. No one gets to decide my name for me.
If you are an avid user/one of the moderators/one of the admins of Quora and you are agitated/offended/triggered by my article, I want you to do me a favour before scrolling to the comment section of this page.
- Go learn what ‘Internet Anonymity’ is and find the difference between an anonymous guy and a guy with a pseudonym.
- Ask Mr JJ Abrams, how he feels about this policy!
- Create a fake account on Quora and see for yourself how your ‘Real Name Policy’ sounds? (Do let me know the magnitude of the humour in that)
If you are still planning to explain the ‘anonymity’ and some bullcrap theories about the ‘Real Name Policy’ craps again …
Go fuck yourself and never ever return to Geekswipe! We have a policy too… “If a reader is too stupid to understand the concept of anonymity and privacy on the internet, they are better off our network!”
A special note for the admins who humiliated my friend and for the morons who raged a war with my name:
What I might have done to Quora
Quora is already a shitty place with self-promotion spam everywhere (that’s what you get for your worthless real name policy). With a genius cousin to automate, I may have created several hyperactive Quora bots with pleasing real names and random generated fake emails and faces, with one mission – Down vote and mess up random posts even further. Well… I wish I could have … Or … Did I? Yipikaye Quora!
This post was first published on March 18, 2014.
I agree with the concept of anonymity over internet and also I have denounced Quora to European authorities, because this policy is illegal there (GDPR policies).
Quora may decide to ignore what European rights say, but Europa may decide to ban Quora and put a enormous fine on them. Quora may opt to ignore the fine and exists only outside Europa.
And I don’t even live in Europa. But probably I was only one of many people denouncing it.
But, little after that, Quora have changed that terrible policy and now you can use a pseudonym. Justice!
I just found quora in 2019 and I used it like I use reddit: to find authentic (not necessarily right) answers to things, and for more personalized answers. Anyway, 2 weeks ago, I came across some answers that made no sense. I know this because the answer to the aforementioned question is part of my job irl. I couldn’t find a reply button and after about 2 mins of endless searching, I realized I wasn’t allowed to answer questions. I didn’t think much of it and I moved on.
Today, different story. I came across something political on there that I disagree with, vehemently. Since I wasn’t allowed to reply or at the very least troll lightly, I spent almost 1 hr trying to find out why…
Fake name.
Opsec, especially online, is just second nature to me. My family and friends consist of many military, law enforcement, Intel and cyber folks. Even some past and present friends have been on the other side of LE. I grew up, and live surrounded by people obsessed with opsec. Anyone with a brain knows to leave a minimal web footprint. Not just because of a fear of advertisers or the”NWO” but because it’s common sense. Sorry for the unhinged rant but I’m still hot right now because I hate being silenced in any way, and not being able to respond to that question is annoying the shit out of me lol
Tldr: I’m an internet privacy fiend and I agree with op. Fuck quora. I’m out.
just deleted my account. answered on something, got flagged, now suddenly have to provide real name. I guess someone didn’t like my answer and flagged me as reply. cancel culture at its finest. yawn. also when searching for anything, i wish i could disable quora from the search entirely, there is never anything remotely interesting in the quora answers ever. even reddit has more interesting answers/discussions
If Quora asks for your ID, many websites do fake IDs nowadays for cheap, no problem. It’s one thing to kick bad actors and another thing to treat the 99.99% of well-behaved citizens as political prisoners in China or Russia. Quora’s attitude reflects what we see in Russia and China, believe me, I had my first hand experience on day to day basis. Give Quora 5 years and it will fade. Most younger generation (that is I guess 40 and less are tech-savvy enough to understand the perils of publishing you personal details. Significant portion of the 40+ up don’t have much clue of online privacy and get comfortable when they are told by Quora that all is good and in safe hands. Reddit is also known for bossy admins but the difference is that you have to be really bad to get kicked out ad Reddit and you don’t need to use real name. On the other hand, Varage Sale (app and website similar to Offerup or Craiglist) also has real name policy and their admins are nasty like hell kicking people out just because they don’t like somebody’s name. While Varage Sale may be protecting victims from losing money from bad deals but they are losing user base and the site is in a free fall ever since they started with the naming policy. And don’t forget – Varage Sale profile showing I made $100,000 in sales with my real name is easy target for IRS to find out I didn’t pay taxes on private sale. Same for Quora, what prevents from anybody searching information about you, whether it’s your school, your company, your competitor, your insurance company etc.. With growth of A.I. a casual text is authentic. Although the ability to identify a person from text is in it’s infancy, the writer identification using texts social media forensics is NOT a science fiction. Nevertheless, putting a real name behind any text you write makes it priceless. One must question (and something to speculate) whether using a real name OR using a acquired online identity is better for democracy. That’s something that needs to be understood and studied. However, choosing the way a user describes himself on an online public forum is and alone should be expected behaviour in a democracy because democracies protect individuality and the RIGHT for privacy. Would we allow Google to create Google glasses and just by putting them on I will instantly see a profile of any person that just talks by me, name, address, date of birth, hobbies, worries?? That’s just because an online platform chose to link a real identity of online identity? No, and we are not there yet, Quora is fortunately no Google. If I don’t like Quora there are many other options out there. If Quora was Google, the comparison with China or Russia would be applicable here, but since Quora is not Google, I think throwing here Russia and China is way overboard.. but not a a completely different league given than Quora holds power over it’s users like Russia and Quora holds power over its citizens. Anyhow, the bottom line, online privacy and anonymity cannot by any means be guaranteed, but the right to have a choice whether to stay out of the spotlight needs is a universal basic human need, which Quora has decided to wreck. In fact Quora behaves in the same way as dictatorships do when dealing with the underclass, that is like with trash.
Well done Karthikeyan. This article well rebuts the bs concept of using real names – they can’t even tell what’s a real name, not to mention all the cultural bias and rude assumptions behind the actual moderation process. Hope you had fun with the much better alternatives!
I was ban too for using my nickname Cocoa. Oh well I barely visit the site anyway. They can kiss my ass.
The best part to me is the amount of brain dead people who say stuff like: “you have NO reason to not use your real name on Quora!” Like what? How long have you been on the internet? Quora essentially asks that you provide your entire life’s history to be able to contribute there, which makes it super easy for:
1) People to track you
2) Mess up future employment opportunities
3) Real-life family/friends to find you and mock you, etc.
Oh boy! The community always does that! Whenever some mod or some self-important power user delegated a new rule like “longer questions lead to poor quality answer” (like wtf kind of bullshit is that), or in this case real name policy the rest of the community just echoed and parroted the narrative and justify it with hundreds of words nuanced with self-righteous gusto to make everyone feel bad as if they’re being paid to say that. It’s scary, almost like a hive mind cult.
In the years before the internet, my parents used to use my mother’s maiden name on retail applications. That way whenever sales people called and asked for “Mrs Pitman”, we’d know immediately to say “Not home.” My parents even told us children to say that if anyone asked for the Pitmans, though at the time I didn’t understand why.
These tech firms think they’re such hot shit and just wanna control you. I’ll pass on all of it. Ad-block enabled. DDG privacy essentials enabled. Bittorrent on.
I’ve never been so angry because of a stupid website, but Quora pisses me off in so many ways I don’t even know why. Aside from issues you mentioned, I also got one major issues with how the site manages and rewards their contributors.
Forget about writing quality content, the site obviously encourages users to compete for attention and it’s all about getting viral, but, their standards in deciding who’s the Top writer in the program is completely opaque and so biased to the point getting the award might actually be an embarrassment, not something to be proud of, because how easy it is to get it if only you know how. Some users even reported they didn’t know why they got it in the first place and that’s exactly my point; you can give your life to the site writing 1000s of answers in hopes of getting that title one day but one wrong post or step on the wrong foot *cough* power users *cough* then the chances of you getting that award is practically 0. Meanwhile some random users who barely even go past their 100th answer could get that award for no reason. How is that even fair? But we all already know what is going on. Quora is biased and they’re not even shy about it. The only people still oblivious to this are idiots. Awards in the real world should be earned, but awards in Quora are not earned, but lobbied, and it’s already a common secret by the site regulars now how meaningless the titles are.
Imagine yourself sitting in a classroom and the teacher gives all the medals and straight As to those who can kiss his ass the most or to those who they like personally, not to the smartest or diligent of all. It will be a complete chaos, and students will see no reason to compete in fair game if that’s how the teacher run a class. In that situation it’s easy to see the immaturity and incompetence of the teacher and parents should be outraged and send complaints to the school, hopefully to get the teacher in question got kicked out. This is what happening in Quora on daily basis, and I see no other reason why so few people seem to realize that glaring problem Quora has other than pure idiocy. Their mods are full of people who play favorites and won’t give you even the light of day they if they don’t like you. I have seen people getting ghosted or banned with no explanation. I think if you give folks like that half a chance, they will literary bury you alive if they could to keep you out of public sight forever.
I don’t consider Quora so great that I need to provide my real name. I’ll just use other platforms from now on.
I got the same message for using my nickname. I refuse to give them a real name, mainly because I have a unique name and I’ve had someone find me easily by using just my first name. I don’t need to give that guy more ways to find me. The option to post anonymously is almost worth it but when I can’t use a nickname as a username on a q&a site, I have to decline. Demanding a real name is an invasion of my privacy. Quora is like that guy who won’t stop asking for your info and so you have to give him a fake phone number to shut him up. Now I’m wondering if using a different email address and a fake name would work.
I should also mention that – I seriously cannot believe that a thumb twiddling quora moderator actually had the nerve to click on a button or something to block general features like editing and usage – even when my actual name is shown in the EMAIL address (which I supplied during the signup/registration some time ago). I merely wrote a regular/normal comment in one of the quora threads. And then, this morning, I see a quora notification about the temporary block thing due to name policy. I think the authorities must investigate – and some jail time for that moderator and his/her upstream bosses is called for here.
Karthikeyan – I forgot to mention. I agree – the people at Quora should be investigated by the authorities upstream. I doubt that it is legal for those idiots to force users to post under their real names. I wonder where these clowns were during the all-important induction classes or sessions about golden rules of using the internet, including identity protection.
Good article. Quora can go to hell. I’m here at this web page because I just noticed that a notification from quora about ‘temporarily blocked from editing for not following naming policy’. I just posted with my first (real) name. My surname is not included for identity protection. Those morons (aka losers) at Quora should know that a golden rule of using the internet is identity protection. It protects the user and their friends and their families etc. As long as the user posts appropriate material —– then that’s all the rules should be.
Really angered me when I was emailed about my username. When I made my account I had used the same nickname that I use on all my other online accounts. I also hope to make it my legal name once I gather the courage (so, no, it’s not something outlandish like AnimeLoverz4Life03329, it’s a legit name, albeit spelled slightly different to pay homage to my given name). So I have no idea how or why they flagged me, but they did and I was beyond pissed about it. I tried changing it to get my account back, yet the mods only made it worse. So I just up and quit. Besides, who in God’s name thought it would be a good idea to force people to use their legal names on a Q&A website? I can’t believe Quora gained any traction with a policy like that.
I created a Quora account over a year ago, I don’t remember if they told me I had to use my real name when I was creating an account, but either way, I didn’t. Instead, I used the username that I use on all my social media accounts. There never seemed to be a problem with it for the year that I’ve had the account, until recently. I changed my name to my real first and last name, but they haven’t unblocked my ability to ask and answer questions. I want to delete my account but, I recently asked a question that I needed help on for homework and I’m still waiting for a decent answer (I’ll give it a week before I delete it)
Update: I deleted my account and sent quora another message telling them off. Yeah maybe it wasn’t the most mature thing to do but it’s not like they didn’t deserve it.
Thanks, I’m deleting my Quora profile now. I think their real name policy is fucking garbage. I didn’t know they required it because I’ve seen people use fake names before. I’m more comfortable using a fake name so I did that after having a quora account for nearly 2 years. What happens? A few days later I get edit blocked. I’m so angry! When I wrote an appeal I should’ve been far less polite than I was. I think quora should be heavily scrutinized for forcing people to use their real name, or even taken down. I see now what a shitty website it is and I never really cared about it anyway.
Only globally trusted international organisations such as Google etc may ask for real names.
Quora has not indicated and proven to me that it should be trusted by anyone. Quite the contrary now.
I was unverified the day after I first commented there.
Contribution, irregardless of quality, seems to be unwanted if your name doesnt sound real enough.
I’ve also experienced this bullcrap policy recently. I refuse to give them my ID for privacy reasons.
I agree, Quora sucks a lot!
Quora is a totalitarian social media platform. They are restricting users of freedom of speech. They use same tactics as Nazis were using - spreading their propaganda to keep their narrative & anyone who doesn’t agree with them are silenced and trumped. They use their “be nice and be respectful” policy to censor any information these dictators (sorry moderators) don’t agree with. Their mission is not to spread knowledge and information (as they claim), but to keep their side of the narrative on the front page. They DO censor certain opinions! For example: Question was asked: If you think Jehovah’s Witnesses are a cult?”. I sincerely answered yes and provided information with link of cult experts to why they qualify as a mind controlling cult. I didn’t insult any users or anyone, just provided my answer with facts. Yet Quora collapsed my answer & sent me an email that my answer violates Quora’s “Be Nice, Be Respectful” policy. So, I didn’t even have an option to choose yes? Then what was the point of question if I couldn’t choose between yes or no?
They also removed my comment when after reading someone’s answer about animal slaughtering festivals of Faroe Islands and China (with pictures) I said: “Shame on you Faroe Islands and China for your bloody barbarian traditions!”, which was very adequate answer after looking at those horrible photos. Quora once again removed my comment and sent me their notification about “violating” their favorite “be nice be respectful” policy.
My last straw was when, I saw really hateful comment from one guy, who literally was sending whole country to hell, asking Russia to nuke it, calling it evil, unchristian and other nasty names, freely expressing his hatred of that country and it’s people, calling them r*tards. His comment was clearly violating their “be nice and be respectful” policy. I reported it and guess what? They didn’t remove it. It’s still there, however they were pretty quick to remove my comment when I criticized those slaughtering festivals… What a hypocrisy!
It’s a very hypocrite & dishonest website! Moderators are obviously deciding what is or isn’t allowed based on their own personal bias. You can’t even provide your opinion honestly, because they will delete it, sending you their “be nice and respectful” violation notice emails.
Quora is also a nest of aggressive extremist pro liberal leftists.
I deleted my account and I suggest you to do the same, folks. Don’t be part of their system. Protest injustice and leave their dirty authoritarian platform. I hope one day it shuts down.
P.S. Try to silence my criticism here, Quora.
I just told them to shove it – can send you the screenshot for a laugh if you want ;)
My Quora name was linked to my YouTube and they wouldn’t accept it after I explained it is a business I’m starting…apparently they allow business names. Heard nothing back. So I deleted all my posts and shares except the one which wouldn’t let me delete.
I also don’t want to give out my birth name for a couple of reasons, one being I’m a survivor of brutal domestic violence. I surely don’t want that ahole stalking me again!
Karthikeyan KC, thanks for sharing your frustrations.
I WILL miss the NICE PEOPLE on Quora though. Even if Quora is pretty cliquey.
Poster Anonymous, May 27, 2019, said it best!
But then again, it is the only comment I read so far….
But yes, I am not the only one who senses that if you say something that goes against popular beliefs / thinking, or simply something the moderator does not like, they suddenly question your name and use it as excuse to limit or stop you from using your profile or make further comments.
And yes, it especially happens on Reddit in certain topics, although there they cannot use your user name as the excuse to ban or stop you.
Happened to me when i started posting as well. Granted, i had been on Quora for 2-3 years, posting comments with no problem. When i finally posted an answer to somebody- probably said something a moderator didn’t like? Suddenly, i received an email stating i was banned for not using my real name.
There’s another site that’s probably far worse than Quora. Reddit.com. I heard the mods don’t get paid for their work? So they basically get on the website with a serious power trip. I started doing research on Reddit, and realized, for them – it gets “personal” very quickly.
Shadow banning, blocking, harassing, banning just because:
1) They don’t like a person’s post
2) Their friends don’t like the person
3) The person who is posting knows the moderator/friends and the moderator/friends feel threatened every time that person posts
4) They, and their moderator friends, or reddit members will harass a person off of sub-reddits or anywhere they post to just get them off of Reddit.com
I had a friend, who works at the same corporation as one of the Reddit mods. He was posting in one of the subreddits using funny pics, gifs and quotes. the mod of that sub-reddit, thought that they were personally attacking them, and their friends and immediately put out a ban through out any of the sub-reddits for people to stop posting pics, gifs or quotes unless they “explained the reason why they posted it”.. or use “I” statements to clarify why it was posted.
Thus, if anyone is wondering how this came about? It had nothing to do with Reddit’s policies. The mod basically said, and i’m paraphrasing:
“This is my Sub-Reddit. And if you have any problems with it, you can contact me – but, i’m not going to change my mind about it.”
Anything you say about those 4 points could as well apply to Quora. Even more so I would say, since there is virtually no foolproof system in Quora that prevents this from being misused. Have you seen what’s happened with few people who broke off from the mold in Quora? They got shadow banned real quick, if not edit blocked for banned. At least in Reddit downvotes are visible… that way you will know when people don’t like you. In Quora downvotes isn’t visible, even to yourself. Where do you think that will lead to? Abuse of downvote system by the circlejerk. It’s simple logic, when you make a system where people aren’t held accountable, sooner or later they will abuse it. Also since downvotes aren’t visible, if you’re the ones getting doxxed by circlejerk you wouldn’t know it.
Then there is the real name policy bullshit. In Reddit you could always make a new account to start fresh. What about Quora? What you think will happen if people start hating you for being you and doxxed you relentlessly? You have no way to go! Your identity is bound to your name which is very bad for you but very good for those in power so they could stop more dissent by deleting someone from the platform for good.
Reddit is pure garbage. Please don’t go there, and if you must, enable adblock.
It’s a circle jerk, or more precisely, it’s a thousand circle jerks. You’re basically not allowed to disagree with anyone. There’s one subreddit for one side, another sub reddit for another side, and if the two ever cross paths, a dog pile ensues and they get voted down into obscurity. It’s psychological abuse.
This just happened to me. I’m not giving Quora my ID. I would never give an Internet Q/A site such information. Thankfully I was already bored with QUORA and their shitty moderation (my answers on NPD were considered violations because I refuse to coddle the predators) so this just makes me shrug my shoulders like whatevs. I’m not going to have my privacy violated just to be censored. It’s also pretty funny that Quora is trying to force users to validate their info like they were LinkedIN when literally anyone can answer questions using a fake name and zero credentials. I’m going to use a FAKE ID just to troll them.
LOL this happened to me today, jst received an email from quora about my account being flagged for NOT USING my REAL NAME.. what’s even more hilarious is the fact that I’ve already stopped logging-in to quora since 2016.. quora literally waited all these years! just to complain whether I’m using my real name or not!? LOL!!!
I’ve already made several answers and I’ve seen people sharing some of my answers that I don’t give a sh*t anymore by then, in any case I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who is finding this strange and suspicious. Whether you are trolling or not I don’t really see the point of revealing your identity to the public just so you can answer someone’s questions.
Quora is really full of sh*t by this point, I jst told the admin to feel free to do their worst, go grabbed my flagged account and go f*ck themselves with it enclosed with a fist bump and a laughing emoji lol
LOL!!! This is brilliant. I figured that I wasn’t alone in this. Although real name policy have never been my biggest issue, it is truly baffling that after all these years the site still managed to attract people of all kinds to come and contribute until they realized they’ve been played all along.
You know what, it is actually quite impressive and hardly believable a site like Quora can sustain itself for so long and getaway with the abuses they have inflicted upon a lot of their userbase, which includes very kind and honest contributors who genuinely want to share their thoughts with other people (who aren’t that many tbh). Go search up ‘quora review’ if you want to know what I mean. Instead, they let obvious troll accounts to ooze trash content with no accountability, narcissistic losers running amok misusing the site as their ego supply and basic-bitch female users with outlandishly banal and upvote-bait answers hogging huge following and viewership simply because they have Instagram-esque profile pictures and a vagina. It makes you wonder whether the people following them did this because they get a boner kick when they upvote answers, hoping that someday they will get a call from them, says I love you, set up a nice candle-lit dinner over the phone, went into a hotel, fuck, have a family on their own and it’s happily ever after. You just couldn’t make this shit up. It absolutely fucking pisses me off to see this at times and in the meantime Quora did NOTHING to moderate this behavior and make it a better place for genuine people that SHOULD HAVE BEEN the kind of users Quora wants, if it still got any brain or integrity left. The fact that Quora is a part of the Silicon Valley tech-boom start-ups didn’t help either, it actually makes everything so much worse. See the big picture… Quora, Facebook, Twitter… you name it. They’re literally the scums of the internet right now, unethical practices, poor content quality control and selective rule enforcement of their so-called rules.
In all honesty, Quora should be shut down and sink to the bottom to the deepest ocean alongside with that last big scam in the valley called Theranos.
I had no idea how sick they were until I googled why I was being forced to download their app, something my storage can ill afford. Thanks to you and all the other people for writing the truth about this disgusting site. Yeah, it’s occasionally good reading and some people enjoy their little community but at the price Quora asks I’ll be finding myself other more respectful and “transparent” communities within sites that aren’t so fucking entitled, greedy, creepy, bc the image in my head of a group of frantic and enraged SS sheeple the size of toddlers goose stepping and flapping their arms furiously all over my shit in a fit of rage bc mommy said no makes it absolutely impossible to take them seriously. Suck it Quora. I enjoyed ur site regularly until now and I hope ur wannaZucks policy leaves u with no one but the extremely old and extremely naive and ignorant. You know, the one’s who think privacy and anonymity is silly bc “who cares, my life is so boring anyways that no one would care about my info…which is the reason I have to make up all my answers on Quora and ask questions about my halitosis”.
I hope you guys get hacked to death. Isn’t this one of reasons Anonymous exists? To remind these sites and it’s people to humble themselves the fuck down?
I also hope that the word keeps spreading so more and more contributors start spamming the hell out of the them with obnoxious questions about their invasive and pressuring tactics/policies. Hopefully that will get my profile deleted.
Fyi, I’ve just recently begun to actively research privacy and anonymity and it’s mind boggling how utterly pathological and inhuman so many of these governments, agencies, and individuals have become but I’m super heated bc I got here already irritated from trying to figure out Adobes privacy policy with their stupid, endless links.
You are so right! I had the same problem. I used my real name, sorry it wasn’t a name they thought was real!
That site’s owners should be jailed just by having that policy. It’s like they are openly breaching your human right. But I just used a fake “real name” and viola, the dumb “informative” site is fooled! haha though messing up with their posts and its votes by using bots is also a genius idea. New swiper here…
I was only a member for a couple of weeks. I go by “Shadow X” online. My nickname has been “Shadow” for many years, so, it pretty much is my “real name,” whatever the hell that is. I asked a few basic questions, gave a few answers, but it was all completely general stuff, nothing offensive, and my answers were to general questions, nothing that would require special knowledge or education.
Well, Q threw a fit, sent me an arrogant message, chastising me for not using my real name. I politely replied, telling them to get fucked, and promptly closed my account.
Today I deleted my Quora account. What gets my goat is the sheer number of Indian Quorans who happen to be die-hard Narendra Modi supporters. Try saying anything against their bhagwaan and they will downvote your answer till the Moderation collapses it eventually. Quora reminds me of today’s India which is now happily turning into a wannabe fascist banana republic.
A few users are very intelligent, accomplished and there are many celebrities with Quora accounts. But then you have all those fake celebrities who have done nothing substantial in real life and seem too chicken to appear in a real interview, but with hundreds of thousands of followers on Quora, they feel as if they have arrived.
I was trapped in that echo chamber for a while but now I feel evolved.
Honestly, I love Quora. I’ve learned a lot about cultures, people, linguistics, history, life, and much more. But I think that the naming system truly is garbage. I know everything i’m saying is redundant, but I at least think the only names that should be banned are ones that are blatantly dumb, offensive, etc. There’s so much to learn and see on Quora, but forcing you to have an account, use your real name, almost malicious admins, the echo chamber in the context of politics, it can be a bit much sometimes. I hope they change in that regard. So much knowledge, so many experiences, all halted by maliciousness and petulance in the name of “moderation.”
Thank God for this article! I just got flagged for not using my full real name. Nuh uh! The Internet
and the real world arealready weird places, am not going to be answering sensitive questions under my real name, God knows whose wrath I have to beget. I have deactivated my account, and it’s just a website. If that’s your policy, I would rather walk out.
I just recently got sent the email as well. I’ve worded a rather harsh but formal reply in response, outlining the issue with “real name” policies including mentioning the problems you and your friend had, and told them to delete my account.
Agreed. Quora and these social media sites think they are some kind of real deal and somehow think we
should provide our real name. Heck we don’t even know anything posted is ever real. Good grief!
I certainly understand your outrage. I just deleted my account because I was ‘flagged’ twice for not using my real name. As if opening myself up to be stalked or doxed is the right thing to do. If I were a troll or always harassing other users I could understand being flagged and required to use my real name. But I’m not and I don’t. I’m a harmless user who treats others as I wish to be treated. I can honestly report that I will NEVER use Quora again.
That’s the best thing to do after being blocked or flagged because of your name.
Delete the account.
I have done it as well.
If they act like a dictator.
I’ll act like a partisan.
Did the Quora admin/mod who contacted you sign their PM’s with their legal moniker?
I had similar problems (refused to supply ID, pointed out the pointlessness of the policy as users can post questions and answers anonymously) and left for about a year. I returned and nothing has been said or done about my “unverified account.” Im not unverified anymore
Update on my situation…
Shortly after posting this comment, Quora re-flagged me. Half an hour later unflagged me, then ten minutes after that re-re-flagged me.
I have asked, both politely and somewhat less diplomatically, why people who need to maintain a certain level of anonymity can not do as such (violent repercussions of publicising names of site users apparently be damned. Odd considering that line of spousal abuse questions!), why Quora is so adamant to disavow one of the founding tenets of the internet (user decided anonymity), why the naming policy is in place on a platform that allows posting and question posting anonymously and why any user should trust this website administrators with legal documents when there is no papered contract protecting the identity of the user…
So far none of these concerns have been addressed. Just a stubborn “Giv’s yer farkin name cunt! or go fucks yerselves!”
Pity. I did like the site. I had friends that I interacted with from time to time and I felt my answers (particularly on my professional wheel-house topics) helped other readers.
Its a particularly shitty move from the Q-admins that when you are flagged, you can’t contact anyone. Can’t ask for peer validation through the website, can’t ask for other contact details from people who you want to keep in touch with, nothing. Its the internet version of “Elinguation” How very dictatorial, how very biblical!
Until this shitcake policy is revoked or at least loosened to the point it is voluntary, Ill be keeping my distance.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK QUORA!!!!!!!! I myself did not want to use my name as a victim of a violent crime and I must be vigalent in protecting my own safety including NOT ADVERTISING MY FUCKING NAME ALL OVER THE FUCKING INTERNET FOR ANYONE WHO MAY REPRESENT MY ATTACKER OR BEEN HIRED BY MY ATTACKER TO REPRESENT THEM AND CAUSE ME ANY FURTHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT HARM, QUORA DOES NOT SUPPORT MY SAFEGUARDING MY IDENTITY THEY WOULD PREFER I MAYBE BE FOUND ONE DAY IN LITTLE BITTY PIECES WASHING ASHORE, IF AT ALL, THEY DO NOT FUCKING CARE, SO LONG AS I ABANDON MY SAFETY IN ORDER TO FOLLOW THEIR RULES!!!!!SO LONG AS THEY HAVE THEIR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT AND HAVE DEEP CONCERN FOR THEIR MEMBERS RIGHT?FUCK QUORA BECAUSE AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, AFTER KNOWING THIS AND DECIDING TO DESCRIMINATE AGAINST ME, TO VICTIMIZE ME YET AGAIN BY NOT ALLOWING ME TO PARTICIPATE AS A RESULT OF THE ACTIONS I AM FORCED TO TAKE BECAUSE I WAS A VICTIM OF A CRIME THEY PRETTY WELL SAID FUCK YOU TO ME FIRST, SO YA, FUUUUUUCK QUORA!!!!!BTW, I AM HAPPY TO SHARE MY NAME WITH YOU, AS IT IS KEPT PRIVATE!!!!!
I very much appreciate this article. After years of ignoring Quora’s attempts to force me to get an account in order to read answers on their site, I finally gave in and figured it was worth it to be able to connect regularly with other intelligent people. I was already frustrated with them for trying to force me to have an account, but I thought the frustration would end once I got one. Nope! Unaware of the real name policy, I signed up the way I always do, with my initials. I lasted mere days. Yesterday, someone who is presumably a lawyer and therefore presumably a critical thinker with good command of their native language (also mine), responded to one of my comments in a way that demonstrated they completely misunderstood my comment. I addressed this, and they didn’t like that. In their response, they said “Also, please fix your fake name.” I was taken aback, as I didn’t have a fake name. The comment felt a little vitriolic, as good faith would have someone frame it in more of an encouraging way. This user framed it in a ‘Quora cultist’ way. Nevertheless, I knew what was coming. I responded by saying I’m new and that I’d heard that Quora was full of people like them. They responded in an arrogant, joking way that they said ‘PLEASE.’
No surprise, I received an email this morning telling me I’ve been flagged and to change my name to a real one. This is against MY personal policy. Internet anonymity is important. I get that they want a community that is reliable and accountable, but if that’s their primary concern, then they would only flag accounts with problematic behavior rather than ‘problematic’ names.
Is there an alternative community similar to Quora. I don’t think I want to deal with that bullshit on the regular..
Well, I’m a little embarrassed. This site seems to fill in some of the Quora gaps. I only discovered it in my search for info on Quora’s stupid policy. Since I’m on mobile right now, navigating away to see the site I’m on after beginning to write a comment is a pain (as is trying to type without typos). I’m excited to have discovered this site! Thanks for your article. Made me feel better about being Quora bullied.
Why don’t you make a question and answer site that does not require real names and laborious name verification. It would be a breath of fresh air. :) Count me in. Why do we need any site to invade our privacy?
We already have many! For example – Reddit! :)
Thanks for the tip.
I just had the name policiy in my mailbox and am not able to answer anymore on Quora.
Going to delete my ‘Quran'(they act like a religion with their rules) account for that very reason.
Are they nuts?
They treat their users with total disrepect. Blocking them for a name they do not trust or like. And that after people have put so much time and energy into their website.
This is a serious sign of lack of moral by the people governing that website.
They don’t know how to value things right from wrong.
I agree. The only way, I repeat, the only way to deal with the naming policies that they will not change is to literally kill quora, and that means to stop using it.
Best memes ever! Quora kicked me out too. Look at the new design.. It sucks too. QUORA FAIL!1
I already hate Quora for forcing me to signup to view answers. And forcing me to download its app on mobile. Now I hate it more.
Dump it dude. The app is not worth. itis a real crap.
wonderul, i’m a bit late, but alls i can says “WONDERFUL!!!” (love the memes)
what is the best way to fuck up quora?
This just happened now!
lol :)
BEST AND EPIC REPLY EVER!
Is this vengeance? I have been using my real name on quora and i dont see any problems because of that. They also give you an anonymous option to post anonymously! You must control your language. Stop abusing Quora!
Or what?
or he’ll cry at night cause hes a moron
ROFL! Hilarious article man! U nailed the memes! U should be so F***d up to have to write this. Watch out for the Quora ninjas at your doorstep
Thanks Austin… I’m good at Martial Arts too ;) Guess I’ll kick em’ all!
You are not alone !! :D
Well, it seems they probably messed with a hell lot of people!
I am that friend mentioned at the end of the article. I can only say that It was a terrible and humiliating experience when Quora assholes keep sending you messages that your own name is not real. Think about that. I am glad my Quora account is deleted. I am never going back to that trash site.
So what happened finally? Did they let you have your own name?
Awsm!