Careful with that community

Social networking site Facebook is facing a revolt from a growing number of its members regarding new features they released yesterday. The upgrades that allowed members to get information concerning friends and contacts via RSS Feeds were an attempt to try to reduce the number of page impressions the site was generating. A site calling users to boycott facebook on the 12th September has been launched as well a petition to put pressure on the site's owners to remove the new features.

Community owners need demonstrate engagement with members on both technological and social development. A site owner ultimately has a responsibility to the generators of the content, who naturally feel a sense of ownership over the site. Member ownership is also experienced by subscription sites too. One subscription model site owner recounted the experience with regret as he felt he had over a thousand managers!

The irony for Facebook is, that if these new features had been included from the outset, there would probably be more uproar at the prospect of their impending removal.