

Chrome extension lets you read Quora without logging in - BenjaminCoe
https://github.com/benvinegar/Spectacles/blob/master/README.md

======
tzs
Google, and the other search engines, should develop a standard that allows a
page to tell the search engine if it does this kind of thing. More generally,
it should be able to tell the search engine which of these categories the page
falls under:

• Freely readable with no need to register. E.g., Stack Exchange.

• Site requires login, but accounts are generally free. E.g., Quora.

• Site requires login, accounts are not necessarily free. E.g., Wall Street
Journal.

• Per article fee. E.g., many scientific journals.

• Content not actually available online. E.g., many hits on Google Books,
where they have excerpts of the book online so you can find it via search, but
to actually get the full content you have to by the physical book.

Users could then choose to exclude some categories from their search results,
or to have some shown ahead of others.

~~~
smegel
How could google index a page if the page requires an account to view? I'm
pretty sure googlebot has no such account. Surely such pages are invisible to
google.

~~~
alexlitov
It's called cloaking when a bot gets one version of the site and a normal user
gets a different page. This can be done based on user agent or IP.

~~~
everlost
Then it might be possible to bypass paywalls by reading from google's cached
version.

------
franze
why should anyone install an extension to read a website that obviously does
not care about the (life)time of it's visitors.

just stop reading quora and stop clicking on quora links (especially in the
google SERPs) and the problem will solve itself.

~~~
bentlegen
To be honest, my goal with this extension was to raise awareness about Quora
obfuscating answers for anonymous visitors ala Experts Exchange.

Most contributors on Quora don't know that their content is being presented
this way. (According to Quora's ToS, the submitter's content is their own.)

~~~
benologist
It's probably worth using now that they publish everything you read as well.

~~~
zevyoura
Worth noting that you can opt out of that.

~~~
benologist
Yeah but it's one of those subtle privacy invasions that you have to realize
has occurred before you can opt out, and most people will never see the "X
viewed this" link tucked away at the bottom of the page.

------
nollidge
I don't understand why any websites do things like this. Yesterday I tried
visiting a link someone had tweeted for fab.com, only to find I had to sign up
before I could view it[0]. Does this technique actually work for building a
customer base? It actively drives me away, that's for sure.

[0] For fob's sake, you can't even view their _Contact Us_ page without
signing up: <http://fab.com/contact-us/>

~~~
mnicole
Same situation for other sites like that (Gilt Groupe, The Clymb, etc.). Even
as a registered user, if I'm on a new device (especially mobile) and I click
on a link through an email and I can't see those products, I'm not going to
log in to buy. I've played that game countless times and I truly don't
understand it. There's nothing "exclusive" about it. If you don't have an
account, that's as exclusive as it gets, but at least show me what I'm
missing.

------
unjinxable
I found this great little jQuery bookmarklet generator from Ben Alman:

<http://benalman.com/code/test/jquery-run-code-bookmarklet/>

You can just paste this code in and generate yourself a bookmarklet to reveal
the quora answers (should work on all browsers).

    
    
      $('.blurred_answer_wrapper').removeClass('blurred_answer_wrapper');
      $('.with_signup').removeClass('with_signup');
      $('.signup_cta_on_answer').remove();

~~~
unjinxable
Let's see if HN allows this long link directly to the generated bookmarklet:

[http://benalman.com/code/test/jquery-run-code-
bookmarklet/?n...](http://benalman.com/code/test/jquery-run-code-
bookmarklet/?name=Quora+Bookmarklet&ver=1&code=%24%28%27.blurred_answer_wrapper%27%29.removeClass%28%27blurred_answer_wrapper%27%29%3B%0D%0A%24%28%27.with_signup%27%29.removeClass%28%27with_signup%27%29%3B%0D%0A%24%28%27.signup_cta_on_answer%27%29.remove%28%29%3B+)

------
jack-r-abbit
The extension won't install for me but it is easy enough to follow his link to
the user script that inspired 80% of the extension and just use that. Also
easy enough to add the missing 20% as well. Great idea. I had noticed last
week just how easy it was to manipulate the CSS on Quora to do this. Glad some
people took the time to roll something up for the rest of us. I seem to be
finding myself linked here more recently. :/

~~~
bentlegen
Shitty. Any clues as to what happened? I just removed and reinstalled via the
Chrome store without any trouble.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Probably that I'm using RockMelt and not Chrome. I don't know enough about
extensions to even make a guess at why some work in RockMelt and some don't.

------
huhtenberg
Erm... I am not getting any "spectacles" and I am not logged in. I don't even
have an account with Quora.

Here's what I see - <http://imgur.com/m9G1Q>

What am I missing?

~~~
bentlegen
I get the blurred answers 100% of the time if you arrive at Quora via a Google
search. Try this URL:

[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&#...</a><p>Also, the first
answer is always clear - they blur subsequent answers.

~~~
aidenn0
I don't from that link; just a big green "Sign Up" button at the top and
unblurred answers below

~~~
binarycrusader
All the answers were blurred after loading for me.

What browser are you using and do you have javascript enabled?

------
swah
Wasn't this the first time "Quora fucked up"? Why is everyone being so harsh
instead of waiting for what they are going to say about it?

~~~
slig
I'm curious to what they have to say about having to email them (and waiting
24h) in order to delete your account.

------
agildehaus
You can just highlight the blurred text on Quora to read it. No extension
required.

~~~
bentlegen
Doesn't work for me in Chrome: <http://imgur.com/OAwSY.png>

Or Firefox: <http://i.imgur.com/wv7JJ.png>

~~~
agildehaus
Works for me on both Chrome and Firefox. These are the Windows versions
though, so YMMV. What does Ctrl-A do?

~~~
bentlegen
Ah, I was using OS X.

------
executive
no support for Chromium on xubuntu 12.04?

~~~
bentlegen
Patches are welcome.

------
sulife
I wish google would block quora if theyre going to pull this crap like
expertsexchange does... it adds no value

~~~
Achshar
But why? Genuine question. What has quora done that is block worthy? Matt cuts
made a video on google webmasters channel on why expertexchangd is not
blocked. I am on phone so cant paste link. You should check it out.

~~~
gergles
It's on the same level as putting content on the page in a 1pt white-on-white
font. Sure, the content is technically _there_ , but humans can't read it.

Expert sex change at least has the content on the page, unadulterated, after
you scroll past a bunch of ad blocks. Totally different from what Quora does.

~~~
jerrya
I haven't been directed to expert sex change in sometime, perhaps because of
Stack Overflow, but unless they've changed, expert sex change is deceptive,
they don't say "real answers below ads", they provide answers that make it
look as though you need to register, then the provide a crap ton of ads then
the real answers. I'd say they are somewhat different from Quora, but not
necessarily any less deceptive. I'd say they are gaming Google.

~~~
sulife
Yea - at least the answers are on the page. Quora is 100% filtered cannot
view. They should be banned from the index.

