In the digital age, being a user of any service, is an endorsement, and vote about whether or not an online service is good or bad. Just as we do in the real world, and shopping at stores that reflect our views, we need to make sure and do the same online.
Each time I am frustrated with a service because of their disregard for privacy or security, or their heavy handed terms of service, their exploitation of user data, or D) all the above, I’m going to blog about it. After blogging about it, and things do not change over time, I will weight the pros and cons of a service, and vote with my user account.
Up this week is Quora. I wrote about Quora’s lack of an API a while back, have ranted on Twitter several times, and after reading my friend Eric Mill’s (@konklone) post on "Quora Keeps the World's Knowledge For Itself", I've decided to shutter my Quora account once and for all. I like idea of Quora, but without an API, data portability, and willingness to share the knowledge it is harvesting, I just can't support such a service.
I feel that even having my name attached to the service in the form of even a dormant account is unacceptable, let alone actually publishing any of my ideas and thoughts there. I’d much rather publish my questions and answers to my own blog, and to services I use that give me access and ownership my own intellectual exhaust. If Quora ever changes their way I may consider coming back, but as of today I’ve delete my account.
