"What actually made the startups switch away from convore?"
I don't think anyone switched away from convore as much as they just stopped using it over time. The problem with convore was that it was too focused on information, and people don't care about information, they care about people. So what started as a better version of chat/forums eventually devolved into a less good version of quora.
The best thing that convore had going for it was that all of the content was extremely lightweight, but in the end I think this is what killed it also because the emotional connection just wasn't there.
I don't think anyone switched away from convore as much as they just stopped using it over time. The problem with convore was that it was too focused on information, and people don't care about information, they care about people. So what started as a better version of chat/forums eventually devolved into a less good version of quora.
The best thing that convore had going for it was that all of the content was extremely lightweight, but in the end I think this is what killed it also because the emotional connection just wasn't there.