@AussieDave 247718 wrote:
Zuga, your site uses a theme (lay-out design) which is available to anyone to purchase. Which will always run the risk of someone elses site looking similar. What I find hard to grasp in your case, is if it bothers you this much, why you didn’t opt to have a bespoke (a custom designed) lay-out theme.
In order to be able to make such statements you would have to gather all the facts before actually speaking up and trying to present ur opinion.
Everything on our site is custom made. All the widgets, all the features, everything is custom made by our team of developers. We do not use third party services, granted with couple of exceptions like one more obvious – our forum which is powered by SMF, but we have customized that as well and adjusted it to fit our and our visitors’ needs.
So when you say that what we have can be bought , Im afraid that is incorrect. Its our code which we do not distribute other then to our own network of sister sites.
We spend s**t loads of money on development hence when i see someone copying what we have I do get upset. What we have is not some WP plugin that can be downloaded for free.
Now granted that similar ideas are seen on other sites, and that we did not invent the wheel ( well some wheels we did ), but we made it our own and unique and dif to what others have. And when someone blatantly use the same concept clearly copying us with no or very little adjustments then I do find the right to speak about it.
I do think its the biggest kind of flattering to be copied, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.
As far as competition, or killing it, thats ridiculous as players will always go to the original rather than settling with a bad copy. Nor do i feel threathened by this.
But then again that’s not the point. It’s the matter or principal and whats right.
And you also wouldnt believe how many times this has happened to us, and how many times icons, images, content etc was stolen from LCB, including our concept.
So if I strike to some of you as coming hard or harsh then it’s for a very good reason.
Anyhooo this thread is seriously derailed ( and yes Im partially responsible ), so Ill exclude myself from further commenting on this topic.
cheers
Zuga