Social networks cloning is good
Here’s two thumbs. One is Facebook and another is Vkontakte, one of Russian social networks.
Which one is Facebook? )))) Did you notice the difference?
Vkontakte
Nice, right? A lot of people would say that making clones is bad, it’s illegal, it makes no sense, etc.
Well, basically that’s bullshit.
I will explain. Of course, it’s bad to make clones oriented to the same local users. I mean it’s stupid to make another Facebook clone in US. But making a Facebook (or any other successful network) clone, for instance, in Brazil can be a bless for Brazilians. Because they are enjoying social networking and they don’t need to reinvent a weel.
But please, DO NOT follow the leader when your trying to innovate. If you think your social network will be 10% better than Facebook or MySpace, think again. +10% makes no sense. Instead try to create social network that is 10 times better.
Try something new. New approaches, new models. And keep things as simple as possible.
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Vladislav Chernyshov aka Bloodcarter aka Carter! )))
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As a matter of fact, if you copy digital property, such as a design or an article without permission and not in a case of fair use, that is still a crime, at least in the US. I am not uptodate to the laws in Russia, though, but I think they are going to be improved this way.
Copying working community models, great. Copying designs and code, not so great.
While scraping is a form of flattery, building something your own, 10 times better, is preferred.
Yura,
Thank you for your comment!
Sure. As I already mentioned, copying digital propetries is bad from the legal point of view. But it *can* be good from social, humanistic point of view. Because people are enjoyng best social networking experience and they don’t have to wait will somebody in their local country or area will reinvent the wheel but with some other design, for instance.
This is not true innovation, of course. It’s all about brining some concept to mass and flattening the learning curve.