Wow. I have come across my first website (Quora) which I cannot create an account on without first having an account on one of a small set of other specific sites (in this case, you get a choice of Facebook or Twitter). If I’m on neither, I simply can’t participate. It’s that simple.
IOW, other companies are now driving Facebook and Twitter signups. Full control of Internet in 5, 4, 3…
This site isn’t much better – it requires that I own an email address and that I have a name.
You can get an email address from one of ten thousand different providers, and email is an open protocol. And you don’t have to specify your real name if you don’t want to.
The point still stands—he has to give his personal details to _somebody_ in order to participate here. It’s just not as modern and jazzy as this new instance you are highlighting.
But yes, I knew this day would come. Not pleasant at all.
You don’t have to specify a real email address, of course — one could say foo@example.com for the ultimate paranoia, and indeed I see clearly made-up email addresses in the comments section on my own site. So I don’t think the concern about revealing personal details is valid.
Maybe you should try to convince them of the virtues of OpenID. No more hassle for their site than Facebook, and (IIUC) more secure (depending, perhaps, on which openID provider the user chooses).
There are many, check that URL for another (includes LinkedIn).
A huge part of answers on Quora is who the person answering is and what qualifications they have on the topic. Quora requires you to have an account where there’s at least some proof that you are who you say you are. If anyone could create as many accounts as they wanted without anything to back them, the answers from those people wouldn’t be as trustworthy.
@Justin Scott
And by having an account on Facebook (DisgraceBook) you gain credibility!? Twitter!? Have you even seen the examples!?
Competency and qualifications are miles apart in the real world.
Other sites have no problem with people answering questions on specific topics without even providing a email address and still maintain high quality.
Your explanation is lacking…
Why would you want to participate in that!?
They want people to create content to them for free so they can monetize it.
very little information is provided and the little that’s is so vague is meaningless…
> You don’t have to specify a real email address, of course
In many cases you have to specify a *working* email address, because they’re going to send a confirmation email there with the link you have to click to turn on your account.
However, nobody requires the email address you give such sites to be the one your ISP provides you with. You could use a Yahoo or Hotmail address (which you can easily get without giving out any *real* information), or even a Mailinator address (which you can just make up on the spot, and anyone who has the address can check the messages it receives).
As for Quora, if the only people using it are people who are into Facebook and Twitter, then my guess is people who aren’t into Facebook and Twitter will probably just give it a miss. The site’s own description of itself sounds thoroughly redundant with other existing websites, so I don’t see what you lose by just ignoring it.