Last week I was notified that I was named as a 2018 Quora Top Writer. So cool! I've been writing lots of answers there for the last half year or so, mostly about tea to begin with, but more recently about travel and life in Asia, and onto other subjects. It was nice communicating some ideas about Russia based on visiting there over the Christmas and New Years holidays.
I wasn't completely sure what it means, what the criteria were. I did look that up (in Quora answers), and cover that here. In one answer "thread"--which those sort of aren't, in the same sense in groups and forums--it seemed like there are hundreds of Top Writers now. If there are millions of people answering questions on Quora and hundreds of "top writers" that's still something.
Of course I'm going to shift this to shameless self-promotion, to mention how many views and likes I've had, and link to some favorite posts. First I'd like to say a bit more about Quora, and before that to give credit to who introduced me to it (based on memory, which isn't reliable).
Robert Godden is another tea blogger, familiar to most in "tea circles," who has been answering Quora questions for some time, and as I recall seeing notices about that started me on answering questions about tea too. His own tea blog is here, and his Quora profile is here.
This guy Kegon on Quora really seems to know tea too.
What is Quora
I'll go with some Wikipedia background on this part (it's usually close enough to accurate, with further source citation references omitted here):
Quora is a question-and-answer site where questions are asked, answered, edited, and organized by its community of users... The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to answers that have been submitted by other users.
That's what it is alright. A little more on user count and function from there:
Quora's user base has grown quickly since 2010. As of April 2017, Quora has claimed to have 190 million monthly unique visitors, up from 100 million a year earlier...
...Quora launched a full-text search of questions and answers on its website on March 20, 2013, and extended the feature to mobile devices in late May 2013. It also announced in May 2013, that all its usage metrics had tripled relative to the same time in the prior year. In November 2013, Quora introduced a feature called Stats to allow all Quora users to see summary and detailed statistics regarding how many people had viewed, upvoted, and shared their questions and answers.
Those aren't Facebook user numbers but pretty good for an expanded version of Yahoo Answers. And finally mention of the Top Writer's program:
In November 2012, Quora introduced the Top Writers Program as a way to recognize individuals who had made especially valuable content contributions to the site and encourage them to continue... Top writers are invited to occasional events and receive gifts such as branded clothing items and books. The company believes that, by cultivating a group of core users who are particularly invested in the site, the program creates a feedback loop of user engagement.
It seems like they've scaled back the gifts--now a New York Times subscription instead--but that general point is the same. I'm not sure about that "feedback loop of user engagement" just yet. I'm definitely chatty online as it is; it might be as well if they didn't ask me for feedback. That "loop" part seems to relate to them saying "good job" with the designation itself instead.
What does "Top Writer" even mean
The Top Writers program recognizes some of Quora's most consistent, insightful, and valuable contributors. Top Writers are writers who make consistent, high quality contributions. Selection criteria include: the number, quality, and popularity of contributions, and moderation history. Top Writers often have significant domain expertise and are Most Viewed Writers in one or multiple topics.
That matches the hearsay accounts I had already turned up, which go further in speculation about how that gets interpreted. This post, more or less in criticism of the designation in an answer about not being named a Top Writer, provides one person's take:
#2 | The Quora Top Writer program awards writers who write highly technical answers to canonical questions in niche topics.
While Quora doesn’t explicitly say that, anyone who has been on Quora long enough can plainly see that they don’t care about writers who write in more general and lighter subjects like humour, hypothetical scenarios, life experiences, storytelling, or survey-type questions—even if those writers write exceptional content.
That's framed a bit negatively, but it's an interesting start. Another answer goes further (which is similar but more positively expressed, perhaps in part because that person was selected as a Top Writer):
In any ad-supported, content-based web business you have two choices: go for audience, or go for traffic.
The engaging, popular Quorans thrive without awards. They’re awarded by their popularity. Those writers build audience, bringing back thousands of followers everyday.
The ‘Knowledge Writers’ drive traffic – people that are looking for answers that are deeper and more experience-driven than a wiki article, technical reference or tutorial. They’re vital in giving this site authority, and all important in-bound links. My answer to a question like ‘how to fill a box with color in CSS’ is never going to get many upvotes but it gets views, most of them coming from outside this site.
So according to both takes authors writing a certain kind of content would be more likely to be selected, answers that add depth of insight related to specific, perhaps more technical subjects, versus telling stories.
Some of those "engaging, popular Quorans" are great. It's easy to underestimate what goes into telling a a simple short story or anecdote. The way some writers use language, and build up a narrow set of ideas into an effective and moving image in just a few sentences is really impressive.
Views, favorite answer links, general self-promotion:
As promised, here is a mention of that Top Writer status in a profile screen capture:
Those "views" stats may or may not sound impressive, and as better-read Quora writers go they're not very high. Lots of people have over a million answer views, and lots more followers than I do (60-some; I'm not killing the "social-networking" aspect).
I mentioned current views back in an earlier post:
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| January 31, 2018 version |
This was the March 18th version, not long after learning about the Top Writer status change:
You can see why the "keeping score" aspect might be even more addictive than counting Facebook or Instagram likes; viewership stats and their version of "likes" combine.
The one other stat is "followers." The typical social-media interaction approaches would increase those: follow other people, engage others in comment discussions, and so on. Including pictures of attractive women in answers probably doesn't hurt. Writing better answers, and more of them, is a bit less direct but that might work too.
It's all more educational than looking at pictures, or news media sources that all too often describe what Donald Trump is doing. Love him or hate him that subject gets to be a bit much, along with politics and tragedy in general.
Some favorite Quora posts
I could just skip that part, couldn't I? I already mentioned what I'd been covering in answers back in February, with a bit about how cultures vary in different countries in that post. A post two weeks ago about how to find local tea shops went further, even including some favorite tea-themed post links at the end. Even more recently a post on why microwaving water for tea might not be suitable stemmed directly from answering a question. I tested that suggested explanation in three rounds of comparison testing, by the way; more will follow on that subject that's still a draft now.
Before getting into my own, I'll mention making one a real life friend through Quora, with a former CA police officer (Gene Lee). He offered some interesting input on that gun issue that keeps coming up, a rare take that's not really pro or con related to ownership or restrictions:
If some people are so against guns, how would they feel if their life were threatened during a home invasion?
And then close with mentioning some of my answers that go beyond tea and foreign culture. To me that's one cool part about Quora; it just keeps going related to subject scope. I just started checking out a random sub-forum button on the Reddit page and that really keeps going further into random topics, almost too far, but Quora covers some ground.
Is there a difference between English Breakfast tea and regular black tea? (obvious stuff)
Which is the proper way to explain death to a child? (pretty far off the subject of tea)
Why would anyone like America? (there are pros and cons)
I am starting blogging. What are some tips on how to start it? (writing about writing)
Why isn't there ferry service between the islands in Hawaii? (did I ever mention living there?)
Is Red Bull unhealthy? (the jury is out, but teens should moderate intake)
Plenty for a short list. That other post already did a lot with tea theme mentions, but then this blog already goes on about that subject as it is.
Quite an accomplishment, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's always nice approving comments from humans, to offset the impression that only spam bots are reading what I write.
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