

Ask HN: How to convince someone that building a Facebook killer is a bad idea? - smallegan

I have a friend who is set on building a better Facebook. I've tried explaining that getting Millions of people to switch seems unreasonable but he continues on.<p>How do I convince him that this is a battle he isn't going to win....or should I?
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protomyth
You should probably use the same tactics that were used to prevent people from
building a MySpace killer. :)

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ladeniran
Sometimes it's better to let things be...Facebook is far from perfect and
while your friends idea seems impossible he just might end up carving up a
niche service...not necessarily a Facebook takeover but something that
delivers stuff people will find attractive.

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josefresco
Instead of telling him "you can't do this", try to be positive and give him
advice that may help him succeed. Have him consider a niche, angle or feature
set that separates his offering from FB.

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code177
For what reasons would you want to stop him from doing this?

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coryl
Maybe if his friend was going to dump his life savings into the project, I
could see it being pretty reasonable to try and stop him.

