[jwegan]

I think this is a lesson in how optimizing for short term metrics can hurt long term engagement when you forget your core product value. I signed up for FB in 2004 and would have been classified as a core user since I would check the site frequently to see what people were up to and would often post updates myself.

However over the past 5 years FB has been trying to drive up engagement off the News Feed through allowing apps to publish to timeline, and encouraging people to post links to articles and videos, etc. For me, Facebook today fundamentally is no longer fulfilling its core product value of helping me stay connected to what is going on in my friends lives. Apps like Snapchat have now taken that role because they are able to deliver on that value in a way Facebook is no longer able to.

[sfifs]

Until of course they run out of investor provided runway and need to start making money...

[sangnoir]

It's the circle of life. It wouldn't need to be that way if the investors do not expect outsized returns for the runways.