What kind of A?
Heres the answer I just wrote for What A/B tests has Quora conducted on its users?, which I think applies equally well here. (I dont think the questions should be merged, thoughthis one is about personal experiences and the other isnt.) Everything below the line was written for that question and just copied and pasted here, so thats why it might read strangely in response to this one. Heres one thats going on now (or maybe just ended in favor of the changeI hope not!). Ive been getting this on and off over the past few days/week or two. Its a minor-looking, but certainly not innocuous, redesign of the question page. Here are the effects Ive seen: The topics to which the question belongs are no longer shown above the questions title. As far as I can tell, the only way to see them is to go into the overflow menu and choose Edit topics. Ive just asked Why aren't topics shown on Quora question pages under the new design (small changes around May 2021, possibly in A/B testing now)? Does Quora realize this could alienate power users who maintain topics? Is Quora entirely removing the topics feature? Oh. When I pasted that link, it became a card, and my list got reset to 1 for the next item. I hadnt noticed that before. (Also, the card truncates the questions title, at least in the editor, so I manually pasted it in full above the card, in italic.) I dont know if this is part of the same redesign, or something independent. Anyway, Id prefer if it was optional, because the old behavior of just changing the URL to the pages title (inline) is more useful in a lot of situations (such as that one). Edit: It is optional. You can choose Convert to link in the cards overflow menu. Then you have to manually delete the paragraph breaks around it. Theres now a blue circle with a bulleted list icon in it to the left of the number of answers. This is probably the most visually obvious way to tell whether youre seeing the new design or not. I have no real complaint about this, other than that it seems unnecessary. The answers to the question dont always all show up. Right now (before I post my answer) this page says 11 Answers, but I can only see one of them (Sivabala Muneess). There is no apparent evidence that there are any others, apart from that number 11. There isnt a button to show collapsed answers, either, so its not that theyre hidden that way. (They probably show up in the logI havent checkedbut only power users are likely to know that the log even exists, and its not a convenient way to read answers.) Sometimes some of the answers are hidden behind a new Show # More Answers button. Sometimes that number is . Even when it isnt, I think it still isnt always the difference between the number of answers claimed at the top of the page and the number already shown before clicking the Show More button. The page now shows Related Answers (answers to other questions Quora thinks are related to this one) below the answers to this question. In my experience, sometimes these are interesting, but most of the time they just get in the way as I try to scroll to the Related Questions list at the bottom of the page, especially because Ive read some of them already (and Quora doesnt make that apparent (with, e.g., a distinctive color for visited links), so you can waste time reading halfway through one of them before realizing you already read it on its questions own page). The Related Questions list at the top right (that stays in place as you scroll down) isnt anywhere near as long as the one at the bottom of the page, so I prefer to look at that one. (Yes, I know they sometimes show totally different links, too, but I dont think thats caused by the redesign.) Sometimes (including on this page as I write this answer), the Related Answers list at the bottom of the page doesnt show up, even if I manage to scroll all the way to the bottom. (an effect on my behavior rather than on the pages appearance or behavior) When I see that Quora has served me an answer page using this new design, I usually give up on my plans to read more than one or two answers (because its just so inconvenient, or at least inconvenient-seeming, to do so, and I cant be sure Ill even be able to see them all), as well as on clicking through to any related questions (because I wont be able to easily get to the full list, and any I might open will probably also not be worth trying to read the answers to, under the new design). I often even close the tab immediately upon noticing that Ive gotten a page with the new design. (Surely this is not a desired effect?) Earlier today, I was happily browsing questions under the old design, but then Quora started giving me the new design for every question page I opened. As a result, Ive given up on using Quora at all tonight (apart from asking and complaining about this redesign), and all I can do is hope itll be back to the old design for me tomorrow. (noticed while making the above edit regarding card vs. link) The editor sometimes scrolls erratically on its own while Im trying to edit, as if a poltergeist is giving scroll input to interfere with my work. Never happened before, so it might be related to the redesign.