avatarRebecca Sealfon

Summary

The web content provides a comprehensive guide on how to write and contribute to Spaces on Quora, detailing the steps from joining Quora to becoming a Space Contributor.

Abstract

The article titled "How to Write and Contribute to Spaces on Quora" introduces Quora Spaces as a new feature on the platform, functioning as collaborative blogs centered around specific topics. The author, an experienced Space manager, outlines a four-step process for engaging with Spaces: joining Quora, following and interacting with Spaces, sharing content to Spaces, and applying for Contributor status to post directly without moderator approval. The guide includes exercises for readers to familiarize themselves with Space policies and submission processes, emphasizing the importance of adhering to content guidelines and actively participating in the community. It also provides visual aids and links to additional resources for a more in-depth understanding of Quora Spaces.

Opinions

  • The author believes that Quora Spaces represent a significant marketing channel and a valuable addition to the Q&A platform.
  • They highlight the potential for Spaces to reach a wide audience, citing personal experience with Spaces that have garnered millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers.
  • The author suggests that many users, both within and outside the Quora community, are unaware of Spaces and their functionalities, indicating a need for more education on the topic.
  • They recommend new users to engage with Spaces by following,

How to Write and Contribute to Spaces on Quora

A new marketing channel on everyone’s favorite Q&A platform

A thriving Space about puns and wordplay, one of many I write for. Screenshot mine.

The website Quora.com is known as a question-answering website, but more than a year ago, it added a rather different new feature called Spaces. Spaces are basically collaborative blogs where a curated community can post and share information about a specific topic.

I started and maintain a number of popular Quora Spaces, some with over a million views and one with hundreds of thousands of followers. I realize many people outside and even inside the Quora community do not know what Spaces are or how to write for them.

This post is intended to clear up the mystery.

Step 1: Joining Quora

Joining Quora and accessing all content is free. Log in with the type of social media you’re most comfortable with — and use the comments on this post to let me know, at any point, if you have trouble. Follow me or other users by clicking “Follow” on their profiles.

My Quora.com Profile. If you read it and read what I write, you’ll learn who this hyena named Waffles is and how I am inspired by her.

Step 2: Following Spaces

So I hope you’ve logged onto Quora. Now that you’re on, I’ll give you a bit of a tour. Lots of people like animals, and I’m going to take you to a popular Space called Everything Animals that I sometimes write for. It’s a bit more sanitized than some of the other animal Spaces. Go to the search bar and type “Everything Animals,” then select “Everything Animals” from the dropdown menu and go to the Space.

Screenshot of my screen, showing how to search for Space Everything Animals. That Space has a bear icon.

Now click the “Follow” button. Once you follow a Space, posts to that Space will show up in your feed. Take a look at the Space description while you’re there, and scroll down to see some of the top posts to the Space. These are examples of the types of content the Space encourages.

Exercise 1: Let’s say you wanted to share a post to Everything Animals containing a video of hyenas slick with blood, ripping a zebra foal out of its still-living mother’s womb. What do the policies of that Space specifically say you need to do? Can you find where they say this? (Answers to all exercises are at the end of this blog post.)

Exercise 2: Another Space rule for Everything Animals is in the Space details. Can you find the Space details, and what is the rule?

Exercise 3: Type some topics that interest you into the Quora search bar, and go to another Space in one of these topics. Look at the most recent posts, and follow the Space. If you want, use the comments to this post to share which Space you chose to follow.

Exercise 4: Leave a respectful comment on a post you like by clicking on the chat bubble icon at the bottom of the post, entering your comment in the text box below the post, and pressing “Add Comment.”

My screenshot of a sample Everything Animals post. Can you find the chat bubble icon (hint: it’s next to “0”)?
My screenshot of what the post looks like after I’ve clicked on the chat bubble icon.
And now I’ve typed a comment on the post. I can submit when I press “Add Comment.”

Step 3: Your First Space Share

Go to a Space called World of Water. Follow it if you’d like. I recommend you make your first share in that Space. It’s a fast-growing Space I help maintain, open to anything reputable that is related to the ocean or any other body of water. I’d like to give you a good experience when you submit your first post. World of Water covers an especially broad and non-controversial topic, tends to have a fast turnaround time on accepting or rejecting submissions, and should be keeping the setting that anyone can submit.

Outside Quora, use a regular Internet search engine to find a good source in English about fish, your local lake, or some other water-related topic. It should be different from what’s already on the Space.

You can submit the link you found if you click on “Link” at the bottom left of my screenshot.

Note: Quora has changed the submission format since this tutorial was written. For a full tutorial on the new submission format, check out my more recent piece. Then you can skip to Step 4 of this tutorial.

So I found this lovely page about the interactive relationship between clownfish and sea anemones.
Having clicked on “Link,” here’s how I can share with a caption. The link share is submitted when I click “Share.”
Now that it’s shared, the link and caption look like this added to the Space.

Since you aren’t yet at Contributor level on this Space, your submission will need to be explicitly approved by an Admin or a Moderator. Good luck!

Step 4: Becoming a Space Contributor

When you’re on the main page of a Space, you might see the list of people involved. Perhaps it looks something like this.

My screenshot of the People box of Space World of Water. Note the status of “contributors.”

And if you click on the “People” tab,

Note the tabs in World of Water. This is what is visible to Admins. Main, Questions, People, and Submissions if you have a submission will be visible to Followers. Suggestions will become visible once you are a Contributor.

You will see a more extensive list of the people involved at various levels in the Space.

My screenshot of what the “People” tab looks like on World of Water.

What you need to do — perhaps after following more Spaces, figuring out which ones you like, and making some more submissions to Spaces — is apply for Contributor status to a Space. Contributors can post directly to a Space without each post being specially approved by an Admin or a Moderator. In some Spaces, they can also invite other Contributors.

The “People” tab will look like this if you are not a Contributor. Note the box inviting people to apply for Contributor status. This is found on most, but not all Spaces.

My screenshot of Space Dog Pics, where I am not a Contributor.

If you click on “Apply here,” you will get the form where you can apply for Contributor status.

My screenshot of a sample application for Contributor status on Dog Pics.

Depending on the Admins and Moderators, who approve or reject Contributor applications, some Spaces have a faster turnaround time for Contributor applications than others. In the Spaces where I am an Admin or Moderator, I tend to approve or reject Contributor applications within a day or two. A few of the other Spaces that should respond quickly include Pakistan, Our Stories, Conservation of Nature, Undermine the Patriarchy, and Enlightened Coexistence. Spaces where Admins and Moderators regularly post tend to be more responsive in general.

Congratulations! You’re now part of Quora Spaces.

Photo by Joseph Chan on Unsplash

Here, you can read my own story of what I’ve gained from Quora Spaces and what you can, too.

There’s a lot more to learn about Spaces, such as how to ask questions on Spaces and how to share Quora answers or original posts to them. You can learn more about these things here.

But you’re off to a good start. Space Updates has more advanced tips and tricks, as well as recommendations of cool Spaces to follow and a place to discuss how Quora’s tech team can improve the Spaces feature. And if you really want to go deep into the feature, you can run your own Spaces.

Exercise 5: Can you go to my Profile and find which Spaces I am an Admin or Moderator of? Hopefully, you are interested in keeping in touch by joining some of them.

Answers to Exercises

Exercise 1: Avoid showing gore in the first image of the post or, if the post contains videos, the sample frame of the first video. This is what will appear in the thumbnail when content is posted to the Space. (Saying the post’s thumbnail should not contain disturbing images is a good enough answer.) Also, add a trigger warning about the post. The instructions about what to do with potentially disturbing posts are in the post pinned to the Space.

Exercise 2: The rule in the Space details is that posts are limited to no more than three per person per day.

Exercise 3: Answers may vary.

Exercise 4: Answers may vary.

Exercise 5: The specific Spaces where I am Admin or Moderator may change, but the list as of early June 2020 is on the bottom right of this image.

Screenshot of my Quora.com profile, showing the Spaces in which I hold Admin or Moderator positions as of early June 2020.
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