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Quora’s first acquisition is Arab Spring instigator’s Q&A site Parlio

techcrunch.com

24 points by vinod1073 10 years ago · 21 comments

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maceo 10 years ago

Please, cut it out with the bullshit. This guy played a negligible role in the Arab Spring. The only reason he received the media attention he did was because he held a prominent position at an American company.

Calling him the Arab Spring's instigator is an insult to Egyptian activists and organizers, not to mention the revolutionaries in Tunisia.

  • pbarnes_1 10 years ago

    Wait, I thought Twitter was the Arab Spring instigator!

    No, it was Facebook... oh wait... random Q&A site ;)

  • Pintok 10 years ago

    Take a fucking look around.

    How many people in prominent positions in well known companies open their mouths when there is a obvious stink in the air?

    I have massive respect for the guy.

    • philtar 10 years ago

      The actual instigator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

      Fuck a prominent position. He doesn't have a prominent position, and every single large exec would open their mouth when their entire country is being destroyed.

      Fuckin' hell HN. As an Arab, I'm severely disappointed that everyone forgot the reason the Arab Spring started was because a 26 year old burned himself alive because he couldn't afford to live. Not some social media savvy guy from google.

      • Pintok 10 years ago

        So whats the lesson? To me it's pretty simple. You want change learn to do it the right way. Gandhi, MLK and Mandela didn't burn themselves and get change over night. And guess what, being media savvy is how you make change happen. There are to this day people who will call those three characters the most media savvy men of their time.

        If marketing can sell Coke, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian it can be used to sell other things too. Positive things. Constructive things. To pretend without media savvy your message will get out and have influence is highly misguided in this day and age.

        • noobie 10 years ago

          What fucking media and marketing are you even talking about? I am a Tunisian citizen and I have never heard of this guy until these last couple of days.

          • Pintok 10 years ago

            Well I have. And I deeply respect what he is trying to do. It's solution oriented unlike cheap talk.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwJ0hNl1Fw

            • maceo 10 years ago

              Give it up. I left out an important part in my original post: this guy only got media attention in America. No media attention in the Arab world, because being a Google employee didn't make his sacrifice any more significant. The European media had enough sense to not focus on this guy either. Only the insufferable mainstream American media is self-centered enough to push the narrative that an employee of an American company was instrumental in the Arab Spring.

              • Mira_s 10 years ago

                I am Arab. Please speak for yourself. Nobody appointed you spokesperson for Arab opinion.

                I think Wael has played and continues to play a very important role.

            • noobie 10 years ago

              sigh

              Again, he is NOT the Arab Spring instigator.

              • rebussuper 10 years ago

                Appears to me you are confusing the words instigator and initiator. Check a dictionary for the difference.

                One could make the case that Bradley Manning or Julian Assange or Wikileaks initiated the Arab Spring. But nobody is going to deny they instigated it.

    • noobie 10 years ago

      He wasn't trying to look down on the guy. He just pointed the obvious; calling this guy the Arab spring instigator is far-fetched.

      • Pintok 10 years ago

        I don't think so at all. His posts and calls to rally where catalysts that were required.

        • noobie 10 years ago

          Yes but he did not instigate the Arab spring. The success of the Tunisian revolution is what set the Egyptian uprise in motion.

          He did his part yes but he did not initiate the Arab spring.

  • noobie 10 years ago

    As a Tunisian, this.

_RPM 10 years ago

Does anyone know how Quora plans to make money?

  • rabidonrails 10 years ago

    Apparently "...[Quora] is finally preparing to earn some revenue through advertising after 7 years of riding its venture capital."

  • ank_the_elder 10 years ago

    You should open this as a question on Quora.

  • AznHisoka 10 years ago

    Advertising. They're loaded with search traffic. Loyal direct visits not so much. Anyone in Quora, refute me if you want.

    • siquick 10 years ago

      Their personalised email digest is outstanding so I would expect this to drive a lot of return visits.

  • rajacombinator 10 years ago

    They've been running some "sponsored question" type things recently. Interesting idea, not sure how scalable.

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