This is the same criticism that has been leveled at Quora since it first launched, and yet the site has been growing tremendously. It's too early to say that Quora will eventually become truly mainstream, but it seems even more premature to say that it won't when it is still growing.
Pre-launch, it's definitely true that Quora was given a big boost by the names of its founders and (to a lesser extent) tech blogosphere coverage, but after using the site for a while it's become one of the most important ways I access information, in particular one of the most important ways I discover new interesting information. That is potentially a powerful position to be in. It's telling that the links in the original article to Quora questions were are interesting enough that I clicked on all of them and thought they were all much more valuable and entertaining than the original column.
Pre-launch, it's definitely true that Quora was given a big boost by the names of its founders and (to a lesser extent) tech blogosphere coverage, but after using the site for a while it's become one of the most important ways I access information, in particular one of the most important ways I discover new interesting information. That is potentially a powerful position to be in. It's telling that the links in the original article to Quora questions were are interesting enough that I clicked on all of them and thought they were all much more valuable and entertaining than the original column.