#MeTooQuora

I, Too, Was Censored on Quora

• by- Angela V. Woodhull, Ph.D.

In 2018, I devoted a lot of my life to Quora Digest. I wrote literally thousands of informative articles. Most of these essays took me, on average, five hours of my daily time to compose. I was awarded for these creative and informative writings with a substantive audience of about six thousand followers, and more than 6 million total views.

Even in 2021, my past writings (even though I wasn’t publishing so frequently on Quora) were now getting a lot of views — about 100,000 hits per month.

Quora also named me “Top Writer in 2018” and then invited me to become a question writer in their Partner Program.

However, three years later, with no noticeable change in my writing style (although I was writing much less frequently), I was suddenly and unexplainably banned.

And what is a “banned” writer? A “banned” writer is a censored writer.

Let’s talk about censorship.

Censorship is a serious slippery slope that will not make the world a better place of knowledge. Instead, censorship turns the world into a place of fear and fascism. Quora’s alleged mission statement is “to share and grow the world’s knowledge. Powerful, simple, and easy to understand.”

What’s not easy to understand is that the same knowledge I devoted to sharing with the world on Quora that earned me “Top Writer 2018” — is now collapsed knowledge, and the word “banned” appears before my name.

Baffled Quorans who used to follow me wonder if they are next when they notice that even a top writer who painstakingly shared her knowledge on a vast array of topics can whimsically get banned/censored.

Additionally, of the nearly 40 complaints listed on the BBB (Better Business Bureau) website from other Censored/Banned Quoran writers, Quora (with a C- BBB rating) merely replies with generic and nebulous statements to the multitude of egregious and serious complaints. The replies, neatly written by Quora officials, once again place only fear and apprehension in the average Quoran reader/writer. “After reviewing our policies, we have determined that the ban was accurate, blah, blah, blah.”

The average Quoran reader/writer then concludes, “Maybe I shouldn’t express my opinions on ‘that’ topic. Perhaps I, too, will be censored and banned if I write on ‘that’ topic.”

Confidence Turns to Apprehension. And Apprehension Turns to Banality.

Joyful writing then turns into fearful and apprehensive writing. Soon, “that” topic can become almost “any” topic. As more and more writers are banned and answers whimsically collapsed, many writers then conclude that only the most timid opinions should be published. Perhaps, just the weather. And maybe even the weather is not so “nice.”

Ultimately, many writers conclude that only the most guarded and polite topics should be (yawn) written about.

Ironically, I once read that during WWII in Germany, the daily detailed government logs consisted of the most banal statements. While thousands were being daily executed, government officials would simply write about the weather and what they had eaten for lunch.

“Growing knowledge” and “banning/censoring top writers” are at diametric odds with each other, especially in the United States of America — and all it allegedly stands for.

And, so, what does all of this whimsical banning leave, in the end, for Quora? It leaves a plethora of trite writers whose bland, nice, and tasteless one liners to Quora’s drab “polite/nice” questions will, most certainly, effectuate Quora’s ultimate demise. (As a former paid Question Writer for Quora, I was shocked to discover that most answers to most Quora questions are very half-assed, uninteresting one liners. It was rare to find someone who would actually take the time to write a quality answer (something of merit) to the thousands of questions I posed on a plethora of topics.)

In the end, the pathetic slogan of Quora, “Be Nice,” will absolutely lead to its demise.

“Be Nice.”

For, in reality, most of the world’s top world-changing writers have not been so “nice” at all. The world’s top writers wrote with bold pen strokes, determined confidence, and courageous resolution. Censored writers and their censored books have changed the world.

Therefore, I have joined the ranks and proudly now wear that mighty badge:

“Top Quora Writer — Banned”

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“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”

~Bruce Coville

“Censorship is the child of fear. The father of ignorance. And the desperate weapon of Fascists everywhere.” ~Laurie Halse Anderson

“Censorship in any form is the enemy of creativity, since it cuts off the life blood of creativity: ideas.” ~Allan Jenkins