<human>: I'm in the process of starting a new online business.  It turns out, it seems to be a pretty unique idea/method.  Through my less-than-novice patent searching (through the USPTO, google patents, google, etc), I can't find anything that really comes close to what I'm doing.  That said, I'm completely torn of whether or not I should even care about a patent.  Ultimately, the more and more time I put into this, I'm getting more and more worried that another geek like myself with good programming skills and enough free time could see what I've done (when I'm done) and, well, copy it.  It's not about the tech.  I'm even considering open-sourcing the code behind the service.  It's really the specific business idea itself.

Now, my general stance on patents is this: if you've designed something completely, mindblowingly unique and awesome; patent it.  You've earned it.  "Great idea, you win" sort of thing.  But that's really limited to designs, imo, such as the inventor of Velcro or the VCR.  However, when it comes to business ideas, it seems to me that the best level of protection is building barriers to entry rather than going legal.  Reddit, for example, just touted a BILLION page views last month.  They're open and with little legal protection (I guess I don't really know if that's true), yet a competitor will have trouble toppling this well deserved empire mainly because there's already millions of people visiting (over and over, for ~15 minutes at a time).  They don't need added protection, they just have a solid platform with a great community.  

But still, I'm torn.  I have a good idea (well, I think so anyways) and I'd hate to see the fruits of my labors turned into vapor by a copy-cat.  However, I also believe my true success will be from putting the rubber to the road and building up less physical barriers to entry around the business.

So, that's it, reddit.  What do you think?

Can you condense the text into three sentences or less?
<bot>: I had a brainstorm of a business idea/method.  Should I protect it with a patent, hard work or both? kthx.