Quora, what is it good for?

Now that the hyperbole has calmed down and most of us have finally turned off our new follower email updates, I’d like to take stock of what happened during those days of madness.

First, let’s look at some of the gushing praise that came out of the UK press for this new social darling. There was “Quora will be bigger than Twitter” from The Telegraph which, quite frankly, bordered on idol worship and “Quora: the hottest question-and-answer website you’ve probably never heard of” from The Guardian which at least seemed a little more balanced.

I can’t blame the papers, with the ever increasing number of citizen journalists who can provide the news faster and with less bias, any story has to be jumped on quick to ensure that they are seen to be relevant. Both however were keen to point out that it was the strong preponderance of Silicon Valley’s finest among its users that has led to Quora’s sudden success.

It was this fact that, I felt, led to the second thing I’d like to talk about… the backlash!
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