Here’s a quote from the letter they sent:

Until now, running a shop on Multiply has technically been a violation of our terms of service. As long as you didn’t spam anyone though, we simply looked the other way and let you go about your business. I know that this policy didn’t exactly give you all a lot of comfort, so I’m happy to announce that we’ve updated our terms of service to reflect the fact that running a shop on Multiply is now an officially endorsed activity.

If you would like to run a shop on Multiply, all you have to do is identify yourself as an online seller. To do this, click on “my account” at the top of any page and then on “My Account Info”. In the Account Type field just check the box to indicate that your account is an online shop. That’s it! Once you make this change, you’ll see “Online Seller” appear below your headshot on your site (or “Premium Seller” if you have a Premium account).

Please help us spread the word on this. You will need to check this box in order to continue to run your shop on Multiply, but we understand that it will take time for everyone to get the message.

Also, please continue to be mindful of our spam policy. Sending unsolicited personal messages, or posting to groups, for the purpose of promoting your shop is considered spam and could result in the cancellation of your account.

Being officially supported and having the ability to identify yourself as an online seller is a great first step, but we have more to come. In the near future we’ll start adding features designed explicitly for you to help you better run your business on Multiply. The reason for this group is to allow you to help guide us in those efforts.

For now, thanks for your continued support of Multiply and I’ll be back in touch soon with many, many questions.

Would there be a possibility that they will impose registration fees for online shops? Possibly. For now, online sellers, feast on this news!

So what is it that other community sites need to do to overtake Facebook’s popularity? The answer: use the same applications that got Facebook there.

In my own personal opinion, Facebook’s popularity boomed because of two things; games and Facebook IM. Facebook became like an all-in-one community site. It became a place where people can share pictures, play games and chat with each other. Myspace did have the Myspace IM way before Facebook IM but the IM applet was not embedded in the browser as you had to download and install it as a separate client, and that’s where Facebook capitalized.

Now, other community sites are seeing what Facebook is doing, and they are to do the same thing. Myspace has now integrated games as part of their applications. They have also integrated a Facebook-like IM. I tested the Myspace IM once but there seems to be a problem with it. Multiply, another community site, has also integrated the Facebook-like IM just this week.

It seems that every community site is now banking on how Facebook is doing things. I think one major thing that Facebook lacks, and having this will convince me that it has topped Myspace, is music players. Myspace music still is one of my favorite community site application and if Facebook ever gets one like it, it’s Facebook FTW!