First off …. what is Quora you say?

Quora (URL: http://www.quora.com ) is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.

One way you can think of it is as a cache for the research that people do looking things up on the web and asking other people. Eventually, when you see a link to a question page on Quora, your feeling should be: “Oh, great! That’s going to have all the information I want about that.” It’s also a place where new stuff–that no one has written about yet–can get pulled onto the web.

Attributes of Quora…

• Accumulating Knowledge
• Reusable
• Collaborative
• Continually Improving
• Organized
• Targeted
• People

People? Yes, everything on Quora is tied back to a person. Each question and answer has a revision history associated with it, and each change in the  log is associated with the person who made it. People use their real names and pictures on Quora and have a short bio describing who they are; this helps anyone reading things they write to understand why they should believe what is written and take into account the author’s perspective.

Steps to get onto Quora:

1. Start by setting up a good feed.

* Your activity feed has recent activity about content that interests you. You can view your feed by going to the home page.
* You can build a good feed by following and searching for topics, people, and questions.
* Topics: When you follow a topic, questions and answers tagged with that topic will appear in your feed
* People. When you follow people, you will see questions and answers posted by these people in your feed.
* Questions: When you follow a question, you will see activity about that question in your news feed (example: when a new answer is posted on the question).
* The easiest first step: start by following some topics that you care about and some people who write about them.
* You can also read some interesting questions to get a feel for the site.

2. Learn more, including:

* What does a good answer on Quora look like?
* What makes a good question on Quora
* Learn more about how to use Quora for users in specific fields and professions.

3. Follow a topic on Quora by simply pressing the “Follow Topic” button located in the upper right corner of the topics main page.

There’s a green “Follow” button to the right of a user’s name on every profile but your own. If you are already following the person, there will be a grey “Unfollow” button

4.  What are some good pages for you to check out?

Well, for example, consider the question that was recently posed on Quora:

Which human decision is the most important ever made?  By decision, I mean to a specific situation where individual persons made a conscious choice..

See the answers -  so far -  at:

http://www.quora.com/Which-human-decision-is-the-most-important-ever-made

5.  Categories and examples of Quora questions:

Businesses
* Why is Barnes & Noble performing well as a business while Borders is near (or has even reached) bankruptcy ?

Career Advice
* What would you advise your (hypothetical) 22-year old college-grad child to do with his or her life?

Children and Parenting
* What is the logic in making a child look up a word in the dictionary when they ask what it means, rather than just tell them the meaning?
* What is the right age to let your kids watch Star Wars? and Why do parents let their kids watch Star Wars at such a young age? Isn’t all the Darth Vader / killing stuff psychologically not good for little kids?
* Is it hypocritical to not report your child to the police if you know they have committed a minor crime? Why or why not?
* Why do some parents have their children circumcised?
* What are some alternatives to the Boy Scouts of America for families that don’t support their policies toward gays and atheists?

Etiquette
* How does one get better at remembering people’s names?
* If I see a missed call on my cellphone, but the caller didn’t leave a voicemail, am I socially obligated to return the call?
* Why is it important to teach children manners?
* How do you handle a friend who never chips in enough for a group dinner?

Food
* What are the best pizza toppings to get for a big group?
* In general, can you go to a restaurant and only get dessert?
* How can I learn to love salads?
* Is it rude to very politely ask a lingering group at a restaurant table when they are planning to leave?
* How should one think about the costs and benefits of opening a food truck?

History
* Which human decision is the most important ever made?
* What are good, accessible books on American history?
* Is there any point in studying the Middle Ages, in depth?
* What are some behaviors that are accepted now but might be considered immoral in the future?

Movies
* In The Dark Knight, how did the Joker really get his scars?
* In The Matrix, why doesn’t the Oracle tell Neo he’s the One?
* Was the movie Inception all a dream?
* Why were the Star Wars prequels so terrible?

Music
* Why is live music so loud?
* Who is the Alejandro that Lady Gaga sings about?
* What are the most iconic album covers?

Sports
* What are the most iconic images from the Olympics over history?
* How does a pitcher decide to become a closer instead of a starter?
* Should we root for Michael Vick?

Travel and Cities
* What are the best travel hacks?
* What are good tips for airplane travel with babies?
* Why do some people think San Francisco is the best city in the world?