I was finally unblocked by Quora earlier today. I was reblocked by Quora two hours later. Below is my appeal note for the benefit of anyone else who may find themselves in this situation.
I have literally solely asked nine questions since getting unblocked. Which of the nine questions violated any policy? Which policy was violated? If they did not violate any policy, could you please unblock my account?
The nine questions are:
1. If Speaker Pelosi does not pass on the impeachment articles to the Senate, when do they expire?
2. If President Trump wanted to apply for a writ of mandamus to unstall his impeachment if Speaker Pelosi doesn’t pass the process on to the Senate, how would that be done?
3. Did Joe Biden intervene with the Navy to lessen Hunter Biden’s punishment?
4. Can you count cards and ‘sell the count’ to the players at the table for a guaranteed profit without actually gambling?
5. Is not naming House prosecutors (called managers) to prosecute the President’s impeachment a defense of Trump or an attack on him?
6. Since FISA was passed in 1978, why has it only been in 2019 that an inspector general done a thorough review of a FISA case?
7. Is the Bloomberg Group’s five million euro fine by a French financial markets watchdog for a lack of journalistic ethics a fair penalty?
8. What will happen to Puerto Rico’s crime rates now that their gun laws have been radically revamped (effective date 1/1/2020)?
9. Would you invest in a robot to be rented out for short-staffed factories?
All those questions pop up, and I can see your profile. Are you sure you’re blocked?
SJW’s will often swarm and try to “Deplatform” anyone they consider a threat. it has ZERO to do with violating any policy.
To paraphrase Joe Hill: “Don’t mourn, firebomb their offices.”
John Wolfsberger – Both on this block and the last block, no content of mine was blocked. I just can’t add questions, answers, post comments, or upvote content. I am “edit blocked”, have appealed, and have had my appeal denied on the grounds that some of my content was outside the rules but none of my content was modified or taken down.
The practical effect is that while I am a member of the Quora Partner Program in good standing and continue to earn money, some Quora administrator has stopped me from putting up new content.
Rcocean – Yes, I am aware of the phenomenon. The interesting new bit is that Quora is willing to pay me money to post content it is not allowing me to post without finding any of the content posted objectionable. This is weirder than shadowbanning and so far as I can tell, a novelty.
Paul Grange – I’m reviewing my legal options. Mad money is not worth raising the pirate flag.
“I have had my appeal denied on the grounds that some of my content was outside the rules but none of my content was modified or taken down.”
And, I assume, without any reference to which content, nor to which specific rules were broken by it.
I find the robot question interesting.
Very short, but seems to mingle a bunch of different issues.
One is investment preferences.
Challenging bit one, market research. How many factories would be ready and willing to rent a robot? Part of what a factory may be selling is process, and quality control. Your robot is not going to be a seamless replacement for a missing worker. Why spend the integration cost for a system that would eventually have to be returned, and replaced with a worker anyway? A rental manufacturing automation supplier would seem to only have customers if they are needing to minimize the risk of a forced transition to automation. I could kinda see that as a potential business, but maybe an expert automation consultant could do just as well?
How would you go about starting, staffing, and growing the business I’ve just outlined? Too much uncertainty for my taste, but I’m too risk averse for any sort on entrepreneurship.
Challenging bit two, realizing the tech. Are you building in house, purchasing from a range of suppliers? I have the vague impression that practical robots are fairly specialized. Build robot A, there is a small number of factories who are potential customers, and they might not be short staffed, or they might be more comfortable renting from a competitor. One option is chasing things that are mostly done by humans, hence still available at every factory, but difficult to automate. Robots to load and unload trucks might be this. Another is having a modular robot architecture that is robust, flexible, and durable, so you can afford to have configurations sitting unused in inventory, can assemble and test something for a specific purpose, and can keep using something for 5, 10, 15, years. My impression is that several people have attempted this, and not succeeded yet. The software side would be a definite challenge, and might need a fundamental process or training development in CS.
Right now I have no money, but some choice in how I spend my time. I would spend my time elsewhere. If I try to mentally step in to the shoes of someone with much more money than ability to use it… I hate throwing around money wastefully, and with that much money, could not solve the problem except by throwing money at it. I think throwing money at it has a low chance of working. On the other hand, a not for profit dedicated to industrial automation and maybe union busting could be a hilarious tax write off if I were absurdly wealthy.
I stared thinking about this in terms of Face Book and YouTube but it applies to any of these sites that are living off of contributed content through advertising.
What’s the value of a video to YouTube? As much as a dollar? These sites are under increasing pressure to police content with the definition of what needs to be suppressed varying from day to day and country to country. Even at the slave level rates being paid for moderators, they will spend more than any one post is worth to them by providing even a few minutes of human attention. So they are left with having to rely on algorithms with the bare minimum of human intervention. All of the pressure is in the direction of killing things at the slightest suspicion that it is problematic. Someone capable of delivering an even semi-coherent reply to to an inquiry wold demand a much higher pay rate. You aren’t going to get an answer because giving you one would cost far more than you are worth to Quora.
I suppose it’s a question of whether they will eventually run out of people willing to supply them with content.
Here’s one example of a company that rents robots:
https://www.hirebotics.com
Their welding robot here:
https://www.hirebotics.com/botx
$33/hour, but sound like you can get a substantially better price with a long-term commitment.
Quora? Isn’t that the site that greys out its content and slaps a demand for money in a pop-up window over the page?
I don’t—and cant’t—read anything there.
Kirk Parker – You are absolutely correct. I have asked twice and there is not specific content identified.
BobtheRegisterredFool – You would do a robot rental for the same reason that factories today expand production temporarily by adding a shift in response to demand.
MCS – Quora provides lifetime income per question lists. They compensate for 1 year after posting a question. I am by no means a superstar but my top few questions have earnings in the double digits. I continue to earn money on old content. I just can’t add new content.
ErisGuy – It doesn’t do that to me. It just asks for a login. Are you sure we’re looking at the same site?