This is a rant. You may comment, you may disagree or agree with me but it is a rant about things slightly petty that added up to something worse.

[Begin Rant]

I get it. Borrowing ideas happens. You go "Oh that really looks good I think I'll use it". What really gets me is when you come up with something completely unique all on your own and then EVERYONE starts to copy you. And this is where my rant really and truly starts.

I like to do graphics. I like making my own graphics and if I can make a graphic for something I will. I try to be unique and get out of the three 100x100 avatars for a signature or the standard rectangle/square signature with a picture and some pretty brushes and words. My new thing has been making the signature blend with the board. For example I'll do the background to match the boards that way the pictures can be circular or I can have brushes outside of the square. Yes the technique has been used before but I specifically used it on a board where there hadn't been anyone with signatures like it. I usually make a matching avatar out of the sig so it's a matching set too. That board shut down and the admins opened up a new one, so I joined cause I liked the plot.

I put up a signature I had done for a character with the same PB that took me HOURS to make and figure out. Another player on the site asked if I could do a similar signature for them. I agreed. They put "Sig courtesy of Sayds" underneath it. Thumbs up. Well one of the admins on the site turn around and pretty much copy that style for their own character. Fine. It's a signature and I wasn't that much bent out of shape on it.

While going through the characters I noticed a werewolf with a Rachel Bilson face claim played by one of the admins. Which struck me as funny because on their old site, I played a werewolf who used Rachel Bilson as a claim. Funnily enough, a lot of facts on their application matched my old character. They put the old board on maintenance mode so I cannot access ANY of my stuff that I don't have saved on word (thank god I do). So yeah, I wasn't too happy about that.

On this site I'm known as the Queen of Codes and Plot Pages. I love to make them. Three "characters" saw my plot page that I put up and made requests. They all credited me of course. I did have an issue with someone using my reply format without credit but that got solved quick with a nice little PM.

Now the admin who "borrowed" we'll say my signature style and a similar character had a VERY plain plot page. Five relationships in each of her 3 categories.

Lo and behold this ADMIN (it's an ADMIN of all people) turns around and does her plot page to pretty much mirror mine. Some relationship names have changed but she even used the same color scheme. Blue for friends, green for enemies, pink for loves, and orange/yellow for the others.

Now my plot pages are unique because I make a specialty banner for the top I have a specific way I list my facts about my character underneath it and instead of doing plain text for my category headers I make graphics. Yeah... guess who did the same exact thing. Not only that but she took my reply format too.

The kicker is that character that seemed so familiar, yeah, she used MY character from the old site as her example for how to reply.

Yes this is petty but it is several things that have added up. If it was just a member I probably wouldn't be as angry, but it's an ADMIN. Not only that, but this admin complained to me about people borrowing some of her codes and changing them a bit. So what makes this any different? They've used it for all of their characters now so it isn't like they just used it once.

I don't even want credit and for it to be like "This is your idea". I'm sure other people have done the same things who I've never talked to. But when magically ALL of this person's stuff changes to look like mine, more so an ADMIN, a nice little note saying "Hey I liked how you did this, mind if I do it too?" would be nice. Or maybe just a little "Some of the format based on ideas by Sayds"

And if you are going to do something like this... don't do it on the site the person is on! That's just stupid. Fine, use it on another site, they'll never know.

What's next? Copying a post format? Copying a log format? What happened to being original? Or at least giving people a heads up?

One thing I've always loved about the RP world is how every player is different and brings their own stuff to the table.

I had 2 players ask for the coding for my plotter. I offered to either make them one or they could go to a site that has them premade if they didn't want to make their own. I stated I didn't like my stuff to be used/borrowed unless my name is attached.

I'm sorry but to me these incidents are pretty much as bad as stealing.
[/end rant]

Oh I hear you. That's just awful that an ADMIN is doing it...on the same site you are on! What do they think that you will not notice??? D:

Copy cats tick me off big time because I'm an artistic person, I draw, paint, do graphics, design logos, do photography and all sortsa artsy stuff. It makes me half terrified to imagine someone stealing my work and presenting it as their own. Often I've spent hours and hours on something, I've shed my creativity into my work and I feel like it has a piece of me in it. But when someone just goes and steals it...It just breaks my heart! And frankly I've become so paranoid about every piece of art I post anywhere....

People should always ask! People should always credit! How hard is it to send a little message? How hard it is to put a little credit somewhere? :angry:

I feel your annoyance here, Sadiekins, that irks me to no end. Similarly, it drives me crazy when you go all out on your site skin and icons only to have certain members copy it for their own sites. Or steal names and concepts without even tweaking them slightly. Yeah, guess what just happened to me :p I'm beginning to fear creativity is dead.

Ugh. To be honest, this seems like stealing to me, since she never asked, NOR credited. Have you PM'd her about it, asking for the right credit and what not? The fact that she gets upset at people uses her codes maybe she will understand. If you really don't want her using them, then ask nicely "Hey. Mine. Take it down :rawr: " or somthing. To me, what she did was out of order :S It's not hard to just credit somthing! *fist shake*

Gowd if it was a member I would do just that, but since it is an Admin the situation is slightly different. And it's not like she stole the graphics themselves off of my things (which is BLATANT stealing.. well her using an old character of mine IS stealing). This is such a gray area because you can't really claim an idea, but the fact that several people have commented on how similar all her stuff is to mine. To the point where they think we are the same player.

My signature and avatar were posted on August 19th
My plot page was up Aug 20

Now all of a sudden on August 27th her signature changes
On August 30th her plot page changes to be similar to mine.

That's the only proof I have that they were MY ideas. And I don't even want credit. I don't care if it says "Some concepts used with permission by ____". All I would have wanted is a PM that said I really like your ideas and would you mind if I edited the concept for my character.

I don't CARE if people use my ideas. Great ideas SHOULD be shared. Just a heads up would be nice. I have a friend that did some similar items on a different site. We made them at the same time and there was no way she could have known what my stuff looked like and the reverse. Fine, people get the same ideas. But when things start popping up that look like my items ON the same site I'm on almost 10 days after I do them when this person had something so entirely different before, I get pissed.

But the main thing is how can I approach and ADMIN who is in the wrong? I know she won't see that she did anything out of line.

Not to put a downer here, but I know tonnes of people who used to have the background of the graphic match the skin, and the majority of plot pages I see use those colours. :/

I obviously haven't seen yours though, or the admins, so I don't know how similar they are not including those things. It's kinda bad that an admin copied, not really setting a good example for their members. :/

I'm not really sure how the best way for you to go about this would be, because, like you said, it's a grey area.

If you tell her that other people have been mistaking you because the things are so similar, maybe? Show that you're not just giving a knee jerk reaction to seeing something similar to yours, like.

So I talked to the admin and told her how I felt about it. She did change her examples name from my own character with a "I didn't know". I told her I wasn't buying it.

I then said it's like how she got pissed off when someone took a code she made and modified/tweaked it without asking. Sure they didn't directly steal the content but they took her basic idea without asking, and that's how I felt about my plot page.

I got a "You should be flattered that people are using your ideas". I explained I would be if they ASKED first. Just a note saying would I mind if they built off of my structure. I did get this admission though

I told her that I worked hard and looked at other plot pages to make mine different than the usual ones. I also told her that my thread log is something completely different from anything I have ever seen and that I'm not going to let ANYONE copy even remotely the basics off of it.

I also added a new disclaimer to my stuff so this shouldn't happen again. They can go ahead and use it on a site I'm not on but using it on the same site, it just doesn't make your character stand out anymore, you know?

Hurrah! I agree fully <3 And i think what you did was right too. It's just plain rude to take it, i know what you mean by the fact you where angry at them taking without at least asking you. That pisses me off too x___x

Tbh you don't need a site like that, since it may start with plot pages, and escalade. :angry:

Arg
I HATE that sort of stuff.

Like right now I'm in a situation, but can't DO anything because it's so subtle it could be a huge coincidence (which I doubt.)

I was apart of this site for a while, but left because I just found the admins to be snooty bitches (who do stuff like pinn their own plot pages and stuff).. I had my own site at the time that was a completely different genre and stuff...

Anyway, just recently I went back there, just to you know... look around. I found a few changes that really irked me.

-I use bullet points in the site name and thread titles. They have started using bullet points..

-My character likes: Audrey Hepburn, The Beatles and Vanilla Ice-cream (which isn't in her bio, it's in a particular thread..). The main admin posted a NEW bio for her character in which her character likes: Audrey Hepburn, The Beatles and Vanilla Ice-cream. My character is messy, her character's new bio states that she's messy.

- My character's MSN name is "IamtheALYcoocoocachoo".. her characters new personal message is "i am the walrus"

- My character is a premade, her premade title is "the butterfly".. her new bio talks about her character being a social butterfly.

-I have a "jobs" board, they added one.

That's all I can see... since the rest of the boards are not guest friendly...

I could be over-reacting... but it still bugs me..