As a Quora user, do you feel that an answer is likely to be true if it has more upvotes than another answer?

A2A, but Lance LaSalle’s answer says it all; thanks, Lance.

Executive summary: nah. In a recent answer, I was reduced to begging readers to upvote the other answer first. I’d link, but that would mean even more people upvoting my answer instead of the other one.

(Just Vote #1: Amy Dakin. That’s all I’m sayin’.)

I’ll add one metric *I* use for A2A, which also gets surfaced (at least some of the time) in the UI for answers: how many questions the poster has already answered on the topic. That can establish either that they know what they’re talking about, or that they’re at least persistent.

Why does the Chinese government actively support Esperanto?

User has mentioned in comment to question the magazine El Popola Ĉinio (“From the People’s China”), and I remember its impeccable glossiness and low-key propaganda.

Argh! I did read about this at a bookstore the other day, in a collection of essays about the posterity of Mao’s Little Red Book. But no, I didn’t buy the book.

The way the book put it, the Communist Party in the ’50s was sympathetic to the aims of Esperanto, and saw it as a suitable, non-colonialist vehicle for getting their message out. I think the book subtly hinted that they were a bit naive about the propaganda efficacy of Esperanto. But in the ’50s and ‘60s, I suspect it was not that absurd a vehicle: most English-language vehicles would likely have been closed.

(Who was that American journalist who’d interviewed Mao in the ’30s, and Mao did an interview with to help prepare for Nixon’s visit? Not all English-language vehicles were closed; but the audience was certainly not as reflexively sceptical.)

Which poem or song best represents Greece in your opinion?

I’m going with the Birds of the Netherworld. stixoi.info: Του κάτω κόσμου τα πουλιά

It’s got a lot of what makes Modern Greek culture so rich:

  • Cryptic, magical dread. The lyricist based it on a nightmare he had; but the song was released in 1974, during the death-throes of the Greek dictatorship—so people assumed what they would about it.
  • A firmly entrenched notion of the Netherworld, continuing from pagan times, as opposed to Christian Heaven and Hell
  • Casual mentions of antiquity and the landscape; not as obeisance, but simply as inheritance
  • And the dark sorrows of the land, that the tourists miss, beneath those gleaming beaches
  • And all against the stern modal 9/4 thud of the verse, and lament of the chorus.

You can have your Dylans; I’ve always thought the Greek art-bouzouki scene did a far greater job of true poetry in its lyrics, even when it wasn’t subording actual Nobel prize winners like Odysseas Elytis. The fact that Greece continues to keep singers, songwriters, and lyricists separate really helps there.

The translations at http://stixoi.info are horrid. Here’s mine.

Time, envenomed, lingers
in the alleys of the Netherworld to find you.
And out of work for thirteen centuries, he seeks
your ark—and to drink your blood.

Flagellators and the Clashing Rocks await you.
A maiden keeps watch amidst the gold.
The Cyclades are hanging from her ears.
And her bed is the Killer’s den.

Hidden are the secret words in the seashell.
Hidden is the magic of the sea in the North Wind.
One day the oil lamp will go out in the house,
and then you will find neither door nor lock.

The birds and peacocks of the Netherworld
are making you a dress of light and night.
Men gnash and grind their teeth:
They leap, they run, and seize you half-way.

Which Quoran has influenced your views the most? Ernest W. Adams has dramatically influenced some of my views and opened my eyes to topics that were taboo to me.

Quoran that’s influenced my views the most, you say?

Jae Alexis Lee.

She may well think I’m stalking her by now, with all the shout outs I’ve been giving her, but there’s a reason for it.

It’s a bad business to rank people, but:

  • You asked about influencing views, not deepening views, or learning more about the world. That rules out my top 5 Quorans. 🙂
  • I appreciate people who challenge my views on the world. They know who they are, because I keep thanking them for it.
  • The social/political domain I think I’ve learned the most about since alighting here is transgender issues. I’m not quite sure how that happened; I think it started with me liking Elliott Mason’s English grammar posts, and then getting everyone he ever upvoted on my feed. 🙂
  • Jae both talks about transgender issues, and challenges my views on the world as a card carrying SJW (or is that Social Justice Cleric?), and she talks about both with passion and lucidity.
  • Jae has also taught me how not to hate comment blockers. Well, how not to hate comment blockers who have a reason for comment blocking I can appreciate, anyway.

Runner up—although again, ranking people is a foul thing to do.

Sam Morningstar. (Clarissa, you’re not surprised, are you?)

Similar reasons, maybe less on the left in identity politics, but again, clear and lucid, both within and beyond his home topic of Native American issues.

I miss Sam.

Oh, and Michael Cobb’s answer mentioned Dan Holliday so I wouldn’t have to.

What languages use the word “ox” as a common insult?

Not a surprise: Greek βό(ι)δι vo(i)ði is used to refer primarily to someone unmannered or dull.

Per the Triantafyllidis dictionary:

2. (μτφ.) μειωτικός ή υβριστικός χαρακτηρισμός για άνθρωπο: α. αργόστροφο· βλάκας: Είναι ~, δεν καταλαβαίνει τίποτα. ΦΡ σαν το ~ στο παχνί*. β. άξεστο, αγροίκο, αναίσθητο· ζώο: Mε πάτησε κι ούτε συγγνώμη δεν είπε, το ~. γ. παχύσαρκο: Έγινε (σαν) ~ από το πάχος.

(metaphor) a contemptuous or insulting description of a person who is (a) slow, stupid: “He’s an ox, he understands nothing; like an ox at the trough”; (b) uncouth, insensitive: “He stepped on me and didn’t even apologise; what an ox”; (c) obese: “he so obese, he’s like an ox”.

What are the rules for accenting words ending with -ic in English?

I’m OP, and the question isn’t mine. The question in details is my third cousin’s, Manny Sfendourakis’. Let me explain his question, and then go to the more general answer.

The Nicene Creed refers to the Christian Church as “one holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”. Catholic back then meant just Universal. Of course, you call the Church Universal only when people start disputing that it is Universal: the phrase was added in the First Council of Constantinople, in 381, as part of the pushback against Arianism. Its association with the Catholic Church is much later.

Church cantors in Greek Orthodox churches in Australia have been reciting the Creed in English for some years now. As you can well imagine, Catholic sticks in their craw. In Greek, there’s not much they can do about it: Εἰς μίαν, ἁγίαν, καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν Ἐκκλησίαν.

They could have done something about it in the 17th century, when the Roman Catholics were called katólikos (from Italian catolico). But it’s more important now that Greeks use ancient-looking words, even if that does mean that Greeks end up calling the Catholics the Universal Church. So kaθolikós it is, for both meanings.

In Australia, though, some cantors have decided they can do something about it. When they read the Creed out in English, they call it One Holy Cathólic and Apostólic Church. And they defend this as the true pronunciation.

Manny has a third cousin who’s a linguist, so he thought he’d ask…


Both Latin and Greek have adjectives ending in –icus / –ikos. Adjectives ending in –ikos in Greek came into English via Latin; so the accent of katholikós in Greek is irrelevant. Besides, the accent of katholikós is on a syllable that isnʼt even there in English: catholic[os].

So what matters is what the accent is in Latin. And the accent in Latin is on the antepenult (third last syllable): geográphicus, mathemáticus, comédicus. The accent in words English took from Latin, during the great influx of the Renaissance, followed suit: geográphic, mathemátics, comédic.

So… cathólic, right?

No.

The Renaissance was not the only time that Latin adjectives ending in –icus came into English. A few such adjectives came into English rather earlier, in Middle English. And when they did, they came via French.

Now, Middle French was not the Pepe le Pew language it is now. Not as many nasals, not as many silent vowels, not as many, I dunno, French things about it.

But it did already have one Pepe le Pew characteristic. All its words were already accented on the final syllable.

C’est magnifíque, non?

Alors, on étude la rhetorIque, et l’arismetIque, et on n’est pas un heretIque, que serait une chose lunatIque, comme si on boit du arsenIque. Mais non, on est un bon catholIque.

And like all French words in Middle English, those French words were originally accented Pepe le Pew style, on their final syllable, with a secondary (weaker) accent on the antepenult.

Rhètoríke, àrsmetíke, hèretíke, lùnatíke, àrseníke, càtholíke.

But English didn’t particularly like sounding all Pepe le Pew. So eventually, the secondary accent became the primary accent:

Rhétorick, ársmetick, héretick, lúnatick, ársenick, cátholick.

Arsmetick? Oh yeah. Once the Renaissance happened, they realised they were missing a -th- in the word. So aríthmetic. But the word was still accented the un-French way, rather than being updated to be accented like Latin.

So, if a word ending in -ic is accented on the antepenult, then it came in during Middle English, via French. If it is accented on the penult, it came in during Early Modern English, straight from Latin.

In fact, you can have the one word split up two ways. Arithmetic is accented like it came from French. An arithmétic mean, on the other hand, is accented like it came straight from Latin. The adjectival meaning of arithmétic is a more recent coinage. And of course, it is subject to analogy with other adjectives, such as geométric or logaríthmic mean.

So, if England in the Renaissance was full of people that “one holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” stuck in their craw, it could have happened that the old un-French accent would have been retained (fittingly) for the Roman Catholic church, and the new Latin accent Cathólic would be fit to the more learnèd meaning of Universal.

But that didn’t happen. Because, well, because random, and because precedent. The only people I know of that say Cathólic are Greek cantors. It hasn’t happened, and there isn’t the precedent for it now, and there’s not enough Greek cantors in the English-speaking world to establish precedent.

My questions seem to be consistently marked as needing improvement. Is this being done by a troll? How can I detect him?

Why are so many questions that don’t need improvement marked as needing improvement?

Pretty much the same question. I’ve gotten some real headscratchers too. Seems clear to me the bot has changed, though the questions I’ve had dinged were dinged with a delay of weeks.

If there was an alternative to Quora, would you switch?

There are alternatives to Quora, particularly if you’re more interested in the social component than the Q&A component. I’m not saying they’re good alternatives, but they do exist.

My escape plan involves paying closer attention to both Reddit, and Stack Exchange.

Does Quora censor people who criticize Quora?

Well, I’ve been criticising Quora for a while. Not with the vehemence of, say, Feifei or Scott Welch, but certainly not with the deference of Garrick or Edward Conway, either.

Not censored. Yet. Though given my last few exchanges (my edits are open to be viewed), who knows, we’ll see.

I disagree that Quora is paying attention to criticism, and that therefore positive criticism is valued. I will admit that it has responded to some of the critiques in Why did ZDnet run an article claiming that Quora has a misogyny problem?—but with a delay of maybe a year. The ability to block comments per question was implemented a few months ago; how many years has it been asked for?

And you know, Quora doesn’t need to censor people, to tune out their criticism (should it hypothetically choose to tune out their criticism). That’s the beauty of robotic application of BNBR: you can wait till the robot finds something instead. In any case, much too gauche to do that overtly.

There are alternatives, hypothetically speaking. You can throw people out of the Quora Writers Feedback Group, for example, like happened to Scott. Or you can publicly say “you’re always negative about what we do, so I’m ignoring your feedback”, like Marc Bodnick just said to Robert Frost. Or you just decline to say anything in response and forward emails to /dev/null, as appears to have been the default.