I started Anime Motivation back in 2016. That same year I decided to dominate Quora as a social media platform (Q and A, but still).
With my plan set in motion for platforms like Pinterest, which I built the biggest anime account for until they censored and shut it down, I started writing answers every day on Quora.
- How strong is Dangai Ichigo Bleach?
- What would happen If Goten was never born?
- Is anime for pedos?
- Why is anime trash?
- Why are their few black anime characters in anime?
- Anime characters white?
- What is a loli?
I didn’t care how stupid or triggering the questions were from the beginning or over time, I just answered them knowing it would pay dividends down the line in terms of visibility and promotion, solidifying the “Anime Motivation” name, etc.
I used my sarcastic personality to go viral as well (unintentionally) and that’s what set off the account to gain massive amounts of traction.
Remember, we’re talking about a platform few people use compared to others during that time (even today), and a platform where anime was small compared to 2024.
Today it’s followed by millions on Quora, but back then only 50,000 or 80,000 followed anime topics at that time.
I answered questions so often I even had a question about this.
See:
With a lot of consistency and giving people what they want, people wanted to know more and more about the person behind the account, why it’s behind a logo essentially, why they post so much, etc.
And that leads to virality starting with this from what I understand.
The comments started pouring in, and I went from having 30 followers to having dozens and dozens and then 100s overnight.
This point was during 2017, which then created a whole heap of shit during 2018 and beyond.
Questions came flooding in (examples)
When people start asking about what you do and why you do it, along with:
- How you started.
- How you came up with the name.
- And why you were banned.
You know you’re doing something right.
And I was.
It was too right from Quora’s perspective.
A bunch of sensitive you know what’s over at Quora started taking issue with my more politically incorrect answers on their platform. This became obvious when you see what happens later.
It was a personal attack which I was able to verify behind closed doors.
Being invited as part of “research” into the anime community
Finding more relevant images or info is harder than it looks, but this image is enough and besides it was private so I’d rather only show what’s needed to make a point.
After gaining so much traction and blowing past other “accounts” on Quora in the anime space that had been there for a while, Quora couldn’t ignore the traction because it became millions of views (it was creeping up to that very fast).
It officially became the most viewed anime account of all time on Quora, which will surpass 100M views in 2024 (a lot for anime on this platform from one account).
Now comes the Quora censorship
The censorship was so bad fans made a meme about it
And death threats + troll questions
Now while this looks out of context for someone who doesn’t understand Quora, fans on the platform know exactly what happened.
Also, to explain, Quora has a “report” button to simplify things. What would happen is that a few trolls would falsely report the account, resulting in censorship kinda like YouTube copyright strikes.
Or Quora themselves right after interviewing me would start to censor my content in the 100s and low 1000s.
They even deleted an entire blog and wiped it from existence.
They did this twice and those blogs (when Quora blogs were a thing) were extremely popular and influential.
- I’d write an answer about Pokemon, and a year later they’d delete it for “violating their policy”.
- I’d write about Elon Musk, shown in the screenshots, and they’d claim the images “violate” their policy.
- I’d write about Goku vs Vegeta, and they’d say I’m promoting explicit content.
I’d even share my opinion on their platform, without sounding like an angry lunatic, and they’d say I violated their “be nice be respectful” policy. Which is the translation for “politically incorrect content” that has too much truth in it.
I wasn’t the only one saying these things, It’s just I wasn’t given a pass when I did and it never made sense how popularity could have started this wave of daily censorship and on occasion, weekly censorship rather than daily.
Quora’s team silently hating and policing my account
Call it a whistleblower situation. I knew someone, and they happened to be speaking with Quora during that “Interview” phase. It wasn’t just me who was invited.
When my name was brought up in conversation, the Quora employee’s reaction (and their wording) towards me implied they and several employees had a specific problem for whatever reason.
I wish I screenshotted it at the time but the founder of Quora followed the account during this censorship phase that lasted a few years at its worst.
But that same day the founder unfollowed the account, and it baffled me as to why he’d do it in the first place which is suspicious at best.
It could have been the case that he found out about the account, the website, and myself, and then when he got wind of whatever “they” had a problem with personally, he unfollowed the account.
Speculation, but I can’t go off anything else.
One thing is for sure: quora deleted 1000s of posts, and blogs, and made it difficult to post on Quora with the excessive shadow banning, censorship, deleting content, making excuses, gaslighting, suspensions, and everything but banning the account entirely.
Which I nonchalantly told them to do if they have a fucking problem with what I had to say, what I stand for, or whatever the issue was that wasn’t harming anybody (the opposite).
A wave of my followers emailed Quora in droves, and the following continued to climb even during the censorship.
I feel like this pissed Quora off even more and they hammered down even harder while all the other “smaller” anime accounts, some who said some crazy shit, were allowed to steal, rip off, repost, repackage, and continue to answer questions without interruption.
Related: The Emerging Problem With Anime Censorship, And What Could Happen In Future
Despite the bullshit, the account went on and continued to gain millions of views
It’s not the views that matter, it was the process, the bullshit, and going against Goliath as David and still “winning” despite Quora desperately doing everything they could to strangely break my spirit.
And for a relatively small platform like Quora (compared to other social networks or similar), that’s an impressive number from one little anime account that ended up the biggest in its category.
Benefits of Quora as an anime platform:
- While trolling exists on the platform, there is less of it compared to other platforms.
- Some questions are solid.
- There’s a ton of content if you’re an anime fan.
- You can learn a lot about many anime topics since there are legit accounts writing in-depth content.
- Compared to 2016, 2017, and 2018, there are many content creators now which is good for readers.
Besides this, if we’re talking about business or building a profile, Quora’s not the platform for that anymore in the way that it was.
Censorship in the anime community, which started with my account, is excessive in 2024 and happens to many anime accounts. Even those who aren’t “big” in the context of Quora.
Quora has become more like Reddit in the wrong ways, but there is still a benefit if you’re only looking for anime content or memes.
References:
I’m at WAR with Quora, and there’s only 2 ways to resolve it
The reality of “social networks” like Quora
