I already substantially answered this on Nick Nicholas’ answer to How long did it take you to become popular on Quora?
As I’ve reported in that and other answers, it was a combination of two things:
The topic about me didn’t make as much of an impression on me as it seems to have to some. The attention the “Discord Teens” seem to be paying me has, admittedly, taken me aback.
Mycenaean Greece was a Greek culture, and it was literate at that, though we know none of its literature. The Homeric epics preserve bits and pieces of that culture orally.
But Greek civilisation as we understand it is based on written records, and those written records start with the invention of the alphabet: 8th century BC. Let’s make it 7th century BC for actual literature that wasn’t orally transmitted.
What was India doing in the 7th century BC?
From a cursory glance at Wikipedia, India was moving on from Vedic culture to new religions (Śramaṇa) and new systematisations of the old religion (Upanishads), new political structures (Mahajanapada) and new settlements (Iron-Age: Brief Notes on the Second Urbanization in India). The modern tradition of writing in India seems to date from the 4th century BC, but the oral texts of the Vedas, Upanishads, and Epics seem to have been much more extensive than the Greek Epics.
I don’t have the wherewithal to judge where we don’t have good coverage, and I haven’t thought “I cannot get an answer about this topic on Quora”. Then again, I tend not to ask questions on Quora!
But to back up Joseph Heavner’s point and generalise it:
I have the utmost of contempt for Quora’s credentialism—what Silicon Valley thinks scholarship is about (to quote myself). But if you go diving into linguistics or sociology, you notice that there’s not a lot of regular users who are academics giving specialist advice. Lots of excellent linguists here, for example, not least of whom IS ME. But people whose day job is as a linguistic academic? Thomas Wier, and he doesn’t write often enough.
I have the distant impression that we’ve got plenty of Hard Science and Computer Science academics here, but I could be wrong.
Some celebrity nicknames are funny, and ingenious, and a sign that you have made it big, if you have an instantly recognizable nickname.
On the other hand, some celebrity nicknames show familiar contempt for celebrities, and I like those too. Australian bent in these.
Greeks don’t know the song. Most Greeks barely know about Chameria. And nationalist Greeks who know how the song has become a rallying point for Çam identity may well react with hostility. God knows I read a couple of shitfights on YouTube.
But given the translation and someone who’s not nationalist (e.g. Dimitris Almyrantis: Dimitris Almyrantis’ answer to What do Greeks think of the song of Çelo Mezanit?), you’ll get the recognition of something culturally familiar.
To answer the question, I’m going to YouTube, ignoring the typical “Fuck you Greek pederast” “Fuck you Albanian cur” stuff, and translate the comments made in Greek to a different recording:
I’m not trying to whitewash anything by quoting those. Just point out that if Greeks aren’t given the political context that the song has acquired, and just listen and read the lyrics, they’ll actually like it.
I did too, although I think I’ve heard ballads that got to the point more directly.
Yup, around 10. Set in Liliput, because I’d just read Gulliver’s Travels, and accompanied by some map drawing. Inspired by the Latin textbooks I was poring over, and it had a hell of a lot of declension tables. And diacritics. El Glheþ Talossan-level diacritics. Coz they’re k00l.
It wasn’t full, because I don’t think I understood enough about language back then; vocabulary was never a problem though—there’s always more Latin where that came from. Never taught it to anyone. Don’t remember a thing about it.
Poll: New Blog for Deactivated Quora Users
Purpose: Per discussion under Do we care about Deactivations? by Nick Nicholas on Necrologue, I will be launching a new blog limited to reporting deactivations, to complement Necrologue, with community submissions. The people of Quora can name the blog whatever they want, so long as they choose one of the four obscure Hellenic names I’ve just made up for it.
Deadline: 2017–04–11
Submissions: New Blog for Deactivated Quora Users
I received this a week ago from Sophie Dockx, and am passing it on. The bug report Sophie mentions is a security hole I am electing not to publicise; Quora has been notified of it.
I saw your graphs on the necro. Such over 45° upward slopes are indicative of a lot more than management or policy changes within Quora. This is the signature of a management being flooded with complaints until past saturation point, and that is now collapsing under the work pressure.
Q-mod and Q-admin are not responsible for the bans. They have been flooded and overworked. That is why they don’t check each report properly anymore, because they can’t. They have (almost literally) opened the emergency pressure valve in the hope the report bombings stop. They have banned the targets, not the targeters. They don’t realise that this only makes it worse for them. Incomprehensible bans lead to voluntary quits, as by my friend Prof. Walter Lewin. That is why the Quora community needs to know.
People are leaving Quora for the wrong reasons. They are not a bunch of incompetents or of totalitarians. They have been under attack from an organised mob, but don’t seem to realise that they have. Discuss this with your friends, please, Nick. Don’t take my word for it. Quora has been criticised wrongly by most of its critics. It is not Quora, it is a group of users doing this.
Send my bug report to your friends. Call me conspiracy nutter if you have to. Mock me, have a laugh on my expense I don’t care. What is happening to Quora at the moment is the work of conspiracy nutters. They can’t make such shit work in the real world, but they can on the web.
Sites have been switching to Real Name policy without taking into account why it had been abandoned in the nineties. Real names add credibility to the content, but at the same time warrant a much tighter vetting and background checking procedure. Like the one applied by LinkedIn. Quora has been overambitious. They are slow at detecting fake names, because they rely on reporting by the community for that. That explains also why many people have been banned for using their real names that have been flagged by numerous users as fake names. It happened to me in October.
I received this in email today and am passing it on, anonymously.
I am a moderator of that subreddit r/indianpeoplequora.
With reference to your blog post: How Reddit trolls have infiltrated Quora:
I have removed all those posts where the users show they have asked troll questions on Quora. I have even updated the rules of the subreddit to not allow such things in the future.
https://www.reddit.com/r/indianp…
I’ve created that subreddit a long time ago just for posting funny Quora question/answers written by Indians. Here’s an example of one of the earlier posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/indianp…
I didn’t know all this would have happened.
Regarding trolls, I’ve seen a few on Quora before the subreddit even existed. I’ve seen one vandalize content and ask harassing/creepy questions. I’ve reported them to the Quora admins and had them banned.
The ones you have pointed out:
Regarding the Reddit accounts,
The Reddit account of Raden Smith has deleted his 1-yr old account, and the other has been banned from r/indianpeoplequora.
I am not that active on either Reddit or Quora these days, so I have added more moderators to keep things under control.
Cheers!
… after months of dodging the bullet by using Safari.
… Yeeeeeech.
First suspect thing: how many months does it take to roll out a consistent Quora experience to all platforms? Really? Is that a feature and not a bug?
Second: Why does a “story” I’ve clicked stay shaded? What does that mean? That I’ve read it? What if the “story” was short enough that I didn’t need to click it? Why did I need these distracting shade trackers? Who asked for them?
Third: “Read 1 Answer”? Why “Read”? I wouldn’t know what “1 answer” means under a question?
Fourth: You’re hiding all the other “stories” with this zoomy lightbox thing? Why do you want to disorient me?
Fifth: When I keep scrolling your infernal lightbox down, I end up … scrolling it off the screen? What if I scrolled too fast? What if I wasn’t done with it? What visual metaphor has ever involved scrolling a modal window off screen, to begin with? Anywhere?
What visual metaphor scrolls a modal window halfway off the screen, so I can peer underneath? It’s meant to be a popup, not a convertible sunroof! Why do you make me doubt my sanity?
And if the popup is going to be a convertible sunroof, why does it disappear off screen when I’ve scrolled 3/4 of the way off the screen, rather than all the way off the screen?
And if the modal window is for a “story” shorter than a screenful, why is the modal window flush with the top of the screen, and not in the middle of the screen? Have you ever seen a modal window do that? Does Quora like disconcerting its users? (Don’t answer that.)
Sixth… I reload Quora (in another window) and lightboxes go away again. WTF?
And if that is a feature and not a bug, how can I ensure that I don’t get lightboxes back?
Seventh…
…
… WHAT DO THEY PUT IN THE WATER IN THE UX CANTEEN IN MOUNTAIN VIEW?!
EDIT: Eighth: The lightbox for when I answer a question… The brightness! It burns! (Because there’s all this gleaming white all of a sudden from a blank white modal window against a grey background; much more distracting than the old answer page, which was somehow just as blank.)