Thanks for checking it out. The key difference isn't so much what you can't do with Quora, but rather what you don't do. People don't use Quora as a place to ask specific people questions.
We're interested in optimizing Q&A around thought leaders and experts. Quora works well for finding the right answer to a question - we're interested in finding out a diversity of opinions.
good answer. I actually would rather ask specific question to a specific person trying to capture their brain, rather than shooting my question into the ocean of internet. if you execute properly, this may be big. think email versus twitter - twitter wins on so many level because people can always "let go" conversation and never been spammed with questions, versus email when once given out, a popular individual would have to quickly change it before drowning in spa,. this way if some tech celeb (or any celeb in that matter) is willing to answer questions, he/she may signup to your site and say "hey im ready to answer, ask me a questions".
"We're interested in optimizing Q&A around thought leaders and experts. Quora works well for finding the right answer to a question - we're interested in finding out a diversity of opinions."
What you said there means everything to me and would have convinced me to spend more than 10 seconds on your site. What you said on your about page means nothing to me.
"Askolo wants to create a space where knowledge is easily accessible. Users can use their Askolo accounts to find out more about others and to share their thoughts."
I like it and I hope more 'interesting' people will register soon; I think I should say that before I start whining.
Why didn't you put this (or some sort of similar) information on the landing page? If I was randomly sent link to your site (ie. without context such as HN comments or relatively high score) I would have no idea what it is, and leave forever.
Also I don't like the bar saying ASKOLO on the top - there is no content on it, and it just takes precious vertical space from my small laptop screen. I already know where am I, no need to repeat that. The second bar, nagging me to signup or login is kind of distraction too.
Also, I hope for some filtering features for questions (hide unanswered, hide comments, hide answers - so I can quickly skim only through the questions - I think this could be handy when there is more content on the site).
Hey rednum, thanks for the feedback. You can do some basic filtering on both the newsfeed and the individual page if you look right above the questions section. It's set to show all by default, but I think we can probably do a better job of making that more prominent.
had a similar idea a long time ago (ie. ~2 years) and it was called askcue.com (still online). question sites like these face a huge chicken and egg problem, because you need people asking and answering... sorry to break it to you, but you've ventured into a very competitive and difficult (answers.com, answers.yahoo.com, quora.com, askreddit, formspring.me) section on the internet. still, best of luck to you!
Thanks for the feedback - we're interested in not just Q&A, but really the idea of people search. We see Q&A as just the medium through which users can find out more about other people.
I would suggest having MUCH more information about what I'm signing up for before I actually hand over my information. All I know from the homepage and the about page is that its some form of Q&A website. You should have screenshots of what it looks like once you're logged in, better yet, let us see the questions without being logged in.
Comments like this are almost always the top comment...yet people just can't seem to get the basics right. I'm not a designer, so I know it's much easier said than done, but what's up with the blatant refusal to learn from others' mistakes?
Because the complaints are those of a vocal minority. Most people don't worry about "handing over" their information, viewing screenshots before they sign up, or if Facebook login is the only option.
It's not just about "handing over information"--the original question applies: what, exactly, am I signing up for? It just says "ask people questions."
Granted, there are "About" and "Privacy" links at the bottom of the page, but a few more sentences might be helpful.
I agree with your statement 100%, and yet I think even just a one sentence blurb would be really helpful in getting people to spend the time to bother waiting for another page to load: it doesn't have to be about "handing over" information... you still lose people in the conversion funnel by not enticing them to bother thinking about the next step.
I don't mind the handing over information part, but I will almost always leave a website that wants me to register without showing me what they do. It's laziness on my part, and I don't complain about it in public, I just don't sign up for those websites.
Sites like this are just throwing away users for no good reason.
if people don't get what your site provides or does in the first few seconds then more than likely they won't sign up. One reason so much time and effort is spent on A/B testing, to create an optimal page that will result in the most sign ups.
The fact that the top comment on HN posts is so often some sort of complaint or snarky remark is arguably a problem with HN itself. It's much broader than this post. It's the comment thread of analogue of the tendency of indignation-inducing stories to rise to the top of the frontpage.
Lame complaints may be a problem, but I'm not so sure about complaints in general.
A link like this exists to give you a one-sided case for using an app. Following that up with a counterpoint seems like the most informative way to proceed. I think the HN standard should be that comments of the form "This would likely improve your product" deserve to be voted up, while "Here's why this won't work" should be voted down.
Hey all - thanks for all the comments. This is clearly something we can improve a lot on and we'll work on getting something pushed out. I appreciate everyone taking the time to let us know.
That's a good suggestion. You can click on a users profile image right now to see their current questions and answers, but the homepage could definitely use some improvement to show more information.
More information is necessary. I'm really scared of signing up to something with my fb account without know exactly what for.
It's not a question of people jerking around the every topic like this, here in hacker news. It's an actual need that those who made the service didn't pay attention to.
See other profiles at the bottom of someone's profile frequently includes the person him/herself. In general though - it's an excellent idea, but it appears to be difficult to browse people and/or to search for someone specific.
(edit) Also I am not clear if everyone's treated equally on the site or if there are people how are willing to answer questions and the rest - who asks. I'd say that latter would be a more natural arrangement, and it'd be also sensible not to require an account to ask a question.
Thanks eps. We wanted to limit who could ask questions primarily to keep quality high and to alert users when their question is answered, but this is something that we might open up if people prefer it.
This is exceptionally well designed and thought through. It seems like it could be a lot more valuable than just Q&A for HN users, though that's a smart place to start. I'm impressed with the attention you've paid to some of the details, like the "Curious" counter.
One thing that has held me back from Quora (apart from needing no new ways to spend time online) is that absolutely everything seems public, such as who upvoted what. That makes me uncomfortable, like I'm under a harsh spotlight all the time. Most of the things I think, or say in conversation, are tentative and exploratory. I don't want to be publicly committed to them by default; I want to make that choice myself and be aware that I'm making it, like posting on HN. I'd be surprised if lots of users didn't feel this way, so maybe that's an opportunity for you to differentiate yourselves. In any case, I'd be interested to hear what you've made public and private by default and what your ideas are on the subject more generally.
It will be interesting to see what this grows into!
Like the clean interface. Much better than formspring.me
However, each question requires its own permalink. So that people can share a particular Q&A.
Another idea suggestion would be, create a popular answers tab on all users page. So that if someone has answered 101 questions, his best answers don't get lost.
This solves a big pain point that I have with Quora. In the early days when Quora was in private beta, it was great because "celebrities" like Zuckerberg, Evan Williams and people like that would answer questions. But as it grew, particularly after becoming public it just didn't scale and all the elite-members left for the most part.
By focusing on people it seems like askolo will be able to avoid that fate as the celebrities won't get drowned out. One danger is to make sure the celebrities don't get annoyed/hounded too much. Need to strike a balance between feeding their ego (hey lots of people want to ask me things, sweet!) and annoying (ugh.. ANOTHER friggin question email). I'm sure you guys will be able to figure it out.
It's hard to find people to follow, even though I'm well-connected to the initial group of users (lots of friends in YC, started using Quora in 2009, etc.).
It's made worse because the Facebook Connect prompt on the homepage shows ~12 friends using the site, but once I log in I can't find them. There should be a word for that. Soup Nazi UX or something. "Here's some soup. NO SOUP FOR YOU."
Hey jfarmer, thanks for checking out the site. That looks like a bug - you should automatically be following them if you used Facebook. We'll look into it right away.
I didn't connect with Facebook because I know all the dirty tricks people play. ;)
I can't connect now, after the fact. There are also some simple design oversights. For example, any time I see a list of people, there should be a "follow" button next to their name.
It's actually quite hard to find people to follow starting from nothing, unless I want to follow some of the 8-10 people you suggest automatically.
Another quick nit: please update your From address for your notification emails to include a friendly name (like Askolo or something). Right now, since no name is specified, GMail only displays the part before the @ symbol as the sender, so I get "notification" as the sender... and that looks like spam.
Hey zeantsoi - thanks for the feedback. Right now questions are automatically sorted by recency. We left out timestamps to try to create a more permanent space for answers, but this might be a useful thing to display since we've gotten a few requests for it today.
Please, please include the timestamps for questions, answers, and comments. I'd love to know when some of the questions were asked and answered. If the time is already there (and I'm just not looking hard enough) please tell me where it's at.
Hey bhousel - thanks for the feedback! Right now questions are sorted by most recent so you can see new questions at the top of a page, but we're looking at rolling out timestamps as well.
Interesting idea (I especially like the wish feature)! Great implementation! How do you plan on getting users to come back after they've read(or asked) what they needed to read? Perhaps you can have a daily/weekly interesting thought-provoking question that will get users to come back...
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 170 ms ] threadWe're interested in optimizing Q&A around thought leaders and experts. Quora works well for finding the right answer to a question - we're interested in finding out a diversity of opinions.
best luck to you!
Why didn't you put this (or some sort of similar) information on the landing page? If I was randomly sent link to your site (ie. without context such as HN comments or relatively high score) I would have no idea what it is, and leave forever.
Also I don't like the bar saying ASKOLO on the top - there is no content on it, and it just takes precious vertical space from my small laptop screen. I already know where am I, no need to repeat that. The second bar, nagging me to signup or login is kind of distraction too.
Also, I hope for some filtering features for questions (hide unanswered, hide comments, hide answers - so I can quickly skim only through the questions - I think this could be handy when there is more content on the site).
Most people just aren't very picky.
Granted, there are "About" and "Privacy" links at the bottom of the page, but a few more sentences might be helpful.
Sites like this are just throwing away users for no good reason.
A link like this exists to give you a one-sided case for using an app. Following that up with a counterpoint seems like the most informative way to proceed. I think the HN standard should be that comments of the form "This would likely improve your product" deserve to be voted up, while "Here's why this won't work" should be voted down.
More information is necessary. I'm really scared of signing up to something with my fb account without know exactly what for.
It's not a question of people jerking around the every topic like this, here in hacker news. It's an actual need that those who made the service didn't pay attention to.
(edit) Also I am not clear if everyone's treated equally on the site or if there are people how are willing to answer questions and the rest - who asks. I'd say that latter would be a more natural arrangement, and it'd be also sensible not to require an account to ask a question.
One thing that has held me back from Quora (apart from needing no new ways to spend time online) is that absolutely everything seems public, such as who upvoted what. That makes me uncomfortable, like I'm under a harsh spotlight all the time. Most of the things I think, or say in conversation, are tentative and exploratory. I don't want to be publicly committed to them by default; I want to make that choice myself and be aware that I'm making it, like posting on HN. I'd be surprised if lots of users didn't feel this way, so maybe that's an opportunity for you to differentiate yourselves. In any case, I'd be interested to hear what you've made public and private by default and what your ideas are on the subject more generally.
It will be interesting to see what this grows into!
However, each question requires its own permalink. So that people can share a particular Q&A.
Another idea suggestion would be, create a popular answers tab on all users page. So that if someone has answered 101 questions, his best answers don't get lost.
By focusing on people it seems like askolo will be able to avoid that fate as the celebrities won't get drowned out. One danger is to make sure the celebrities don't get annoyed/hounded too much. Need to strike a balance between feeding their ego (hey lots of people want to ask me things, sweet!) and annoying (ugh.. ANOTHER friggin question email). I'm sure you guys will be able to figure it out.
It's made worse because the Facebook Connect prompt on the homepage shows ~12 friends using the site, but once I log in I can't find them. There should be a word for that. Soup Nazi UX or something. "Here's some soup. NO SOUP FOR YOU."
I can't connect now, after the fact. There are also some simple design oversights. For example, any time I see a list of people, there should be a "follow" button next to their name.
It's actually quite hard to find people to follow starting from nothing, unless I want to follow some of the 8-10 people you suggest automatically.
I'd give the first-time experience a C+.
Although Askolo looks better and nicer to use, so hopefully it'll stick around. I just created my profile, ask me some questions about design!
http://askolo.com/sachag
We talked to the guys behind AnyAsq a while back and they're working on some other cool things not in Q&A - we're big fans of the team.
A: Not yet. I haven't spent much time reading the next batch of applications yet.