
Show HN: Chrome Extension to automatically block the annoying Quora login prompt - niftylettuce
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fkbnfnaikpdihahjljbigedkangbieih
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pg
I'd love it if someone would make something that would let me see answers past
the first without creating an account. Presumably it could be done with an
extension plus a database of accounts a la (or even from) Bugmenot.

Incidentally, does anyone know why Quora wants to force me to create an
account? They can already use cookies to tell which pageviews are from the
same user. What difference does it make if there's a username and password
associated with them?

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jpeterson
Higher user count => more $$$

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pg
How do they make more money if my pageviews are associated with an account?

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johnrob
I think getting you to sign up is the start of a process that culminates with
you inviting all of your contacts. The username/password step is just the top
of the funnel.

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pg
Ah yes, that could be it. I don't think I would advise a startup to do that
though. If you have to be that heavy-handed to make it spread, what that
really means is that the site isn't good enough.

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nickpresta
While I appreciate this extension, I think a better tactic would be to not
visit Quora if you don't agree with the way the site is run.

Between the blurred answers and the login prompt, I will never visit Quora,
for any reason, ever.

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whichdan
This is how I feel about people who religiously use AdBlock.

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lowboy
If they didn't want to see ads on site X, they just shouldn't go on site X?

How do you feel about people who change the TV channel when a commercial comes
on? What about PVRs that automatically skip commercials on playback?

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whichdan
Yeah. The website owner makes a conscious decision to fund their website using
ads, and if the ads are so offensive that you literally need to block them,
why go to the site? What sites are so crucial that you absolutely must use
AdBlock?

I also don't pay for cable TV partly for similar reasons - I buy shows I like
directly on Amazon, and use Netflix as a filler.

Do you disagree with nickpresta's comment? The less traffic Quora gets, the
more likely it is that people will move to a more open platform. The solution
isn't to just bypass their design choices.

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phildeschaine
This mentality bothers me a bit. Not everything is all or nothing. Things can
be made to be better, or worse.

It's like if you had a jetski, but it was the wrong color. From your approach,
you'd say "I'll never ride on that jetski! I'm perfectly fine not riding it."

Yes, clearly you are. You totally, completely, without question have the right
to go on living without it. No problem. But the real question isn't whether or
not you'll be fine without it. The real question is: are you missing out on
pleasure you could be experiencing?

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nwienert
But if you were rented a free jetski for the day from someone who had painted
some ads on the sides to cover his expenses would you go and tape over the ads
before riding? Oh, you would?

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lowboy
To make that comparison more fair, the ads need to be canvas that flapped in
the wind, slowing you down occasionally (as ads on websites will do) and every
once and a while one would lift up in front of the control panel so you had to
clear it out of your view (popups).

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whichdan
If that was the case, I wouldn't rent a jetski from that company.

Now, if that was the only company offering jetskis at that particular
location, and there was no paid option available.. well, I'd question whether
or not they're owned by YouTube, who I sincerely wish I could pay a few bucks
a month to, to get rid of their awful ads.

~~~
lowboy
I'd just get my ideal tape out (waterproof, no residue) and strap those ads
down and enjoy my free jetski time. But this comparison will always be flawed,
like so many digital/real world ones are today.

I don't see running AdBlock as immoral. If I can change something in my
browser to better suit my browsing experience I will, and I feel that's my
right. A site can serve up content, but it's my choice as to what portion of
that content I choose to view, just as people with PVRs or VCRs can choose to
skip ads. Impressions are shit for revenue anyway and I don't think I've ever
intentionally clicked on a banner ad so I'm not taking much away from content
owners.

I skip sites that have an interstitial ad with a 5 second countdown, so I'm
choosing to not ride that jetski.

And agreed on YouTube.

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Wingman4l7
Protip: If people find your site's UI so irritating that they bother to write
browser extensions to "fix" it _(and said extensions become popular)_ , you
might want to rethink your site design.

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wpietri
I'm sure they're aware of the conflict. My guess is that they aren't growing
fast enough to justify all the money they raised, so they're eager to get more
people involved, and are willing to do that even at the expense of annoying
some people.

If they were smart about this (and they are very smart in general), this is
something where they would have done some A/B tests with cohort analysis and
discovered that they sufficiently larger growth with the dickish pages.

Not that I still don't hate them for it. I still enjoy writing and reading
answers there, but they've totally killed my willingness to share answers
outside of Quora.

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krichman
I'd prefer a plugin to block all links to Quora. I will not support a website
that uses tactics to get ranked in Google for content they aren't going to
show human browsers.

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tensor
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbd...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef)

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krichman
This is a step in the right direction, thanks :)

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niftylettuce
Source: <https://github.com/niftylettuce/block-quora-login-popup>

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niftylettuce
could also redirect to window.location w/o ?ref=fb

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crawfordcomeaux
Could this be expanded to including UX fixes for other sites?

To get the feature request going, I'd like those click-through slideshows to
be replaced with a single (scrollable?) grid-based gallery.

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lowboy
Having "UX fixes for various sites" is too generic and varied in description -
it would be a hard sell.

However, I could see it working if you were to drill down to one specific
feature, like hiding the login prompt for a selection of sites.

