But I'm a little surprised that you pivoted from an original and successful idea to an unoriginal and derivative idea.
Your priorities are not aligned with the developer's, me feels. You are worried about being "original" and not derivative--both only tangently related to financial success, which is what the creator seems to be after(and good for him!).
It seems like the developer just gave up. I would have collected everyones email and told them that they will be notified when everything is fixed, or just have created the same service under a different name to challenge facebook to shut it down again.
But I'm a little surprised that you pivoted from an original and successful idea to an unoriginal and derivative idea.
Your priorities are not aligned with the developer's, me feels. You are worried about being "original" and not derivative--both only tangently related to financial success, which is what the creator seems to be after(and good for him!).