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Why is the Quora front page full of real pictures paired with fabricated stories?
Profile photo for Jeffrey Diver

AAMCO Scott

Thank you for selecting my profile to answer this question!

YOU are responsible for the fact that YOUR Quora front page is ”full of real pictures paired with fabricated stories.”

The rest of us are seeing something different.

Let’s take a look at your Profile to see how you have trained the Quora bots:

  • The very first post on your list has to do with spamming on YouTube. It also mentions mainstream media. The Quora bots, therefore are very likely to put information on those highlighted topics into your feed, which is what you are calling your “front page.”
  • Since your profile was created in August 2021 you’ve asked 64 questions, including this one. As a result, the bots have picked up that you are interested in Ukraine, Russia, Zelenski, Putin, Azov, CNN, electric trucks, etc.
  • One of your questions indicates that you harbor resentments against Quora for “petty censorship.” Now the bots think you have and interest in Quora and censorship. In his excellent answer[1] to that question, an experienced Quora user with over 77 million views, Marcus Geduld, attempted to explain why the Quora bots possibly interpreted your question in a way that resulted in its restriction.
Marcus Geduld
 · Jun 15
Because Quora has over 300 million members. There are hundreds of thousands of posts made to this site every minute. No staff of humans can possibly keep up with them. Every large-scale social network has the same problem. If you ever figure out a solution for it, you’ll be an instant billionaire. Qu…
  • Apparently you are using Quora’s questions to make statements with question marks at their termination. You are thus making your questions a target not just for those ill-trained bots, but for all Quorans, especially those who disagree with your poorly concealed prejudices this way and that. Here’s the Quora policy violation to which they will refer when reporting your “questions” to Quora mods:
  • Your answers are invariably supportive of Russia’s side of the Russo/Ukrainian War. You sometimes use “gay” as a pejorative to describe the Azov Battalion.[3] How appending “hashtags” to one of your answers “#StandWithUkraine #StandWithNazis #MakeAzovGayAgain #MAGA” will influence the bots is uncertain, but humans who disagree with your portrayals may be insulted by these references and report your answers to Quora mods as “harassment” of their communities. See: What is Quora’s Be Nice, Be Respectful Policy? and What Kinds of Answers on Quora are not Helpful?
  • Your answers also exhibit a tendency to vent and name-call. This may be a great way of calling attention to yourself on other social media playgrounds, but it will not attract friendly responses here on Quora, just more criticism. On Quora, the best axiom to remember when dealing with the “enemies” you have created for yourself by your conduct is: REPORT, don’t RETORT. If you habitually retort, your Profile may be edit/blocked by Quora and eventually banned from the platform for repeated violations of BNBR (see above).
  • Your edits also reveal sources for your bot problems. Every time you make a snarky remark, the bots pick up on that and either single you out for a warning or assume that now you are interested in “Heartwarming. Fake story. Real picture” (By the way, you might have been wrong about that: [4] )

So there’s your answer. If you train your bots to cough up nonsense on your feed, that is exactly what you are going to get.

Train your Quora bots properly and you will never have to complain about “Seems like fake news, like all the other front page stories on Quora!” Garbage in, garbage out, as they say!

Photo by vianet ramos on Unsplash; modified by author.

-Jeff

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