Monday, March 9, 2009

Facebook Complaints

Every morning, we wake up to some Facebook news or a change that has been implemented on the site. The recent talk was about the right of the company over the uploaded material on the site. Who does it belong to? To the user or Facebook? Protests have caused Mark Zuckerberg to invite users to share their opinions about the terms of use. As its creator, Zuckerberg is aware of the power that a social networking site can have over owners, because the users see themselves as the owners. I wonder if he's thinking: "Oh no, I've created a monster!"
The monster that emerges from unification of voices is in fact pretty strong. This monster usually complains of the changes, is hardly satisfied and always wants to go back to the 'old way of things'. I remember how everyone was protesting the news feed, the new layout. What happened? The users got used to the new features, and now use them very frequently. Of course, it is important for a social networking site to listen to its customers, but it is sometimes good to stick to your guns. Being afraid of change prevents you from experimenting. And without experimenting, there is no way to keep this monster coming back to check its inbox and wall every 10 minutes. The truth is no one really knows what a good networking site should have. So this is a thin line we are talking about here. Yes, the users should complain. The site should listen. But not always! So maybe knowing when to respond to the complaints is what has made Facebook successful so far.

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