[This message has been posted in a response to a request from someone purporting to be OSC on Quora, as a way in which the team there might verify it really is him]
Hopefully it really is :-)
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Yep, it's really me.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Apparently, this post was not enough proof for Quora. I find now that I've been banned for violating the full name rule -- even though the name I used in my Quora profile is Orson Scott Card.
If Mark Harrison's post above really was created as a way to verify my identity to the Quora team, then wouldn't it have behooved someone to check back to see if I answered?
Instead, I find that I can't answer any questions on Quora. I can understand their wanting to be sure that someone who comes on with the name of a person with some expertise really is who they say they are (my expertise is in writing and in the works of Orson Scott Card). But their first proposal was for me to respond to something on Facebook or some other social media -- and I don't have any accounts that I actively operate myself, except on Quora. They also wanted to have a Skype conversation, but that one really baffled me. Do they have someone on staff who personally knows me, and would recognize me on Skype? I really hate phone calls, and I'm also generally unavailable during rational business hours.
The most annoying thing is that NOBODY ever said that I HAD to verify my identity or I would be banned from posting on Quora! Instead, it was merely suggested because some Quora members weren't sure it was me. My response to that was that they didn't have to believe it was me. If my postings were good and made sense, then who cares about the identity of the poster?
But IF they're going to ban slightly-famous people if they don't verify their identity, then when I DO verify my identity, as I did here on my own website, then why did they ban me? Were some of my posts offensive? I haven't posted anything political on Quora, as far as I can recall, so surely it isn't Facebook-style censorship. What's the deal?
Apparently having me post on Quora has no value to the Quora team, or they would have checked back to see if I replied here. So even though I enjoyed my time there, it's apparently over. I'll miss it.
We're like Quora, just we favor definitive evidence over personal anecdotes and we don't give a hoot about what name you wanna use. You'll find plenty of well researched Q/A's on Tolkien, GRRM, and your own stuff.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :