They've even mentioned it on their blog: http://blog.quora.com/Making-Sharing-Better
> Open any Quora URL. If you come across a Quora link anywhere and you want to read it without being asked to join Quora, you can add the text "?share=1" to the end of the URL. Example: http://www.quora.com/Hostage-Situations/What-does-it-feel-li...
What I don't understand is why Quora was/is loved by people like the Facebook team after how much they go through to make using their site difficult for end users. The fact that they require you to log in via a social account just to see answers is very similar to the crap experts exchange is by requiring a paid account.
There was a time when I thought it was a better Q&A site, but they continuously make it worse and worse with workarounds like this for the simple act of viewing a page entirely.
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6300856
Quora is one of the most heinous sites on the internet because I know there is useful information but will hit a trap as soon as I click.
How do they get away with gaming Google search results like this? Why is Google complicit in this shady practice? I don't want walled gardens appearing in search results.
The quality of Quora's ecosystem should not be judged by it's signup wall.
https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/159399 does this automatically
I'm just amazed they still rank relatively high in google's search results for many of their long tail Q&A type pages. Google is usually pretty quick to penalize sites which use such shady tactics, and I've seen them slap sites for significantly less.
To say it's annoying is an understatement. I wish google would penalize all sites which throw up entry barriers, no matter how quick they are to bypass or mitigate.
My solution: Bypass Quora signup wall by avoiding Quora entirely.