Features everyone must borrow from Facebook(codingwithlove.com)
codingwithlove.com
Features everyone must borrow from Facebook
http://codingwithlove.com/thoughts/3-features-everyone-must-borrow-from-facebook
4 comments
Very true and Facebook didn't pioneer the use of real names, either. Not by a long shot. Come to think of it, I can't think of a single feature Facebook truly, actually pioneered -- I can think of a great many they popularized.
Comments could backfire on you. What if you have paying subscribers who start recommending your competitors or free/cheaper alternatives to other paying customers. How do you deal with that. Deleting the comments risks alienating customers. Removing the comments feature would annoy all the customers who now enjoy it. Doing nothing will mean you're effectively giving free advertising to competitors.
Make sure your product is better than your competitor's. You shouldn't be scared of a customer doing a fair comparison of your product against someone else's.
If you want to mention something that was pioneered by Facebook and that you should copy, then it's the use of real names instead of usernames or handles. This feature is what allowed people to connect with each other over Facebook when having no other communication channel, i.e. reconnecting with old friends or classmates.