Nightclubs come and go as fashions change. Any site that relies primarily on social value is a nightclub. People go there for people and when the people go elsewhere, the nightclub dies.

Function is peripheral for pure social sites. Like themes for nightclubs. Remember the club called 'beds' or something on Sex and the City? It had beds instead of tables. Cool, gimmicky, but hardly competition for hotels that actually offer beds as an actual utility. You come to Quora for Q&A like you might go to Beds to sleep for the night.

Quora is currently a nightclub. It is losing its luster. It has one of three choices:

1. Makeover the nightclub with a new theme and new name
2. Become a nightclub/hotel district (i.e. a platform)
3. Become a hotel (i.e. Q&A becomes functional instead of a social theme)

Sadly, the product appears to have become schizophrenic. It's doing a 50-50 hedge between 1 and 3, both of them half-assed, and both pissing off one half of users.

Posts and boards represent a 'new nightclub' play, but without a name change or any originality (i.e. an obvious and somewhat desperate seeming 'pivot' (god I hate that term) towards pinterestland)

Credits represent a hotel play. With more effort on that this could actually become 'real' Q&A.

The best move, but tough and risky, would be platformization. That would be a classic 'big' pivot: provide a Ning like ability to create a new Q&A-centric site to anyone. Tunable anywhere from hotel to nightclub.

I personally detest the Boards move. I don't use the feature at all.

Basically Quora seems to be chickening out at the Go Big or Go Home point. They either believe that Q&A can be a foundational 'anchor' service for a social platform, or that it is a feature rather than a product or platform.

If the former (I'd bet on that option, not just because I like it, but I genuinely think Q&A has legs), it's time for a hail-Mary towards deep, runaway Q&A success that Google, FB cannot compete with. Show the world that Q&A is NOT just a feature.

If the latter, well, keep doing one faddish makeover after another, imitating the latest nightclub. Run on the pivot treadmill faster and faster till the money runs out.

Sadly Quora appears to have fallen victim to slavishly following valley doctrines and fashions.

Lovely, near flawless UX at the edge of design thinking. Technical wizardry. Near perfect execution. Amazing user relations. Team with ridiculously impeccable credentials and pedigree.

But sadly, this perfect straight A's student has no independent heart and soul. There is only so far that can take you. Like that American Olympics dream team. Every piece is perfect, with impeccable pedigree and credentials, but the whole didn't come together.

Wean yourself from Silicon Valley Quora. Soul search and find a place in the larger world.

I have managed to use every start cliche and motivation bromide in this answer. I hate myself.

p.s. Somebody edited the question to add the traffic graph showing an improved situation since the question was posted 11 months ago. Makes no difference. I still think Quora is in nightclub trouble.