I really REALLY HATE these people.. they come on to your forum.. and then copy things from it..

I have seen people copy our rules. our board descriptions, ideas, even our topics.. without our permission.. and it sucks..

We work hard to make our forum original.. and yet, these assholes come along and copy off of us..

What are your thoughts?

Personally,I hate it,cause if you spent god knows how long on your forum,and see someone else copy your stuff,how would you feel?

Me,I'd be pissed off,and I'd report them to IF if you can.

Well, i must say i did copy once in a while...but yeah, people shouldn't do that, cause they will never learn anything by doing this....

Maybe because the rules here are more safer and better for forums.

It's pretty annoying but they must just be losers that can't think of their own... tbh just be a tiny bit flattered that those idiots copied you... They're losing out of being unique it's to their downfall... I think... Anyway it's not too serious we still win and they still lose.

Yep

So they just plainly suck...

I'll say this,if I find any forum stealing from H.C.,I'LL KEEHAUL EM!

Then go ahead DM.

I will,if B.A's fine with it. (I'm not really gonna,I just wanted to say it in a way of showing I'll keep a eye out.)

I can't remember the first thing about making a website let alone a forum. However I must say that if I where to remember I would want to base the rules and regulations off of what I have seen here. You peoples have it figured out quite well. And while it probably wouldn't really have any resemblance by way of content (I would refer people here for this content) I would definitly based my setup to feel simiiar this the Hellblaze Cafe.

Thanks for that, and yeah, baseing them off our rules is ok to an extent.. however, most will copy them word-for-word.. and then not credit us.. we did not make these rules up overnight.. we had to make them up as we went along..

However, the admins of these forums should try to be original.. so if they have a problem with thinking up rules of their own, then they should at least refer to the TOS, of their forums' host, and then make them up that way..

I have seen admins bold/stupid enough to copy someone, and then contact the admin of the site they copied, and tell them to stop copying them.. :ermm:

Thankfully, the rippers we've had haven't been that stupid.

There is this one kid who has a forum on a different host.. and every time we add a section to our forum, he adds a section to his forum.. EVERY TIME.. We have an area for mature discussions, as does he.. we have an area for tutorials and things, as does he.. we JUST made an area for members to talk about general things specific to this forum.. and without fail, he did the same.

That isn't all either.. He has even copied our punishment system as well..

And yet, when asked about the similarity between his, and our forum the first thing he says is that he is not copying us.. GMAFB..

What is the point of having a forum if you aren't going to be original? :huh:

Again, if you see something here, and you are inspired by it, and want to do something similar, fine, that is not a problem.. but don't blatantly copy something, and then say that you aren't..

We did not get where we are overnight.. our oldest members can tell you that.. any section we added, we did so because our communities interests were expanding..

In the beginning this place was all sonic, kingdom hearts, and final fantasy.. it was good at first, but those things became redundant.. you start to notice that when you have new members inadvertently starting the same topics as other members did when they first signed up..

I added sections in hopes of getting more activity.. and it worked.

People came and started posting.. after a while it started to get redundant again.. I added new sections.. those areas became active..

People wanted an RP Section for this forum.. so we gave them what they wanted. That area is the most active area today.. (the reason it doesn't look like that now is because the topics are moved to the recycle bin if it has had no replies in 30 days..) it was the first area on this forum to break 10,000 posts.. This kid had put up an rp section on his forum.. and there is not a single post in it..

Bdx and I had noticed that more mature subjects were being started in the "Free Chat" area.. and because he liked the maturity of the members on my forum, and wanted that for this forum, he had suggested that we merge our sites together.. and we did..

The point is this.. if you only have like 15 members on your forum, and not even 1,000 posts, don't you think that that forum would look stupid if it had the same sections as our forums? When the members don't even post in them?

If the admins don't have enough faith in themselves, or their members to get a good, and active forum on their own, without copying anyone, then that is all the more reason that they should not have a forum at all..

^^^
Well that's what my parents said to me and I've found it works

Wow, that shur is alot of info it takes me a long time to read it all. :idontknow:

well, not everything can be summed up with an "lol" or a "true" now can it?

actually one word replies should not be the way you respond ( generally under 5 words for a reply is considered spam. think about it, if all you say to a discussion is "yeah" it doesn't go very far, and I find I have a hard time replying to a topic when all thats there since my last post is: "yeah" or "cool" or something to that extend, thats fine to do in msn/aim/yahoo but on forums try to avoid single word replies.)

but I digress, that is a point for another time.

As far as copying goes, imitation (I find) is NOT the sincerest form of flattery, no one wants to be copied, it ticks them off. I personally don't mind people using my some of my stuff (as long as i am credited but when someone goes out looks at my stuff then makes their own version based off of mine, then I really get pissed especially if they never credited me.) but also there is some of my stuff which I flat out refuse to let people use (for what ever reason- 1 it isn't finished, it's not perfect or plain and simply, I don't want to share.) It's the same way here.

I dont understand....

In a nutshell,Virus is ok with someone using his sprites or such as long as he is credited,but he hates it when someone dosen't credit him or basing something of theirs on his sprites.

It's what B.A's saying,if it's basing to a extent,there's nothing wrong with it.

Well,there is,but they wouldn't relise.

Ok....

Well I believe that if I were to copy someone and not credit them they should come up behind me and tap me on the shoulder. When I turn around and see that they look pissed off, then I since I mostly likely forgot I would give them the credit they are due. And cake, maybe pie.

Probaly...

yes, but i also said that they should at least try to be original.

it is their forum, and so, it should be a result of their hard work, and not anyone else's..

this forum is a product of the staff's and the members hardwork..

so it is not right to have some idiot to come along and copy it..

Well is there anything we can do about it? I doubt it... Maybe we could jump on their forum and be really rude about it? Who'd care... We send an angry email it'd get dumped... and it's to late to copyright

I remember I had asked you if I could use your rules as the base for mine, and you had told me as long as I gave you credit... does this refer to me? Because I gave you credit plus a link to your rules... if so I apologize and will make new rules. I just might have to close my forums for a while because I'm not very good at enforcing, let alone making, rules...

Again, I'm really sorry if this does refer to me... (although I know that kid your talking about isn't me. I just used your rules, I made everything else while I was half asleep... I seem to get ideas at 12:00 at night)

This was not directed to you at all.. this guy was running a phpbb forum..

i meant what i said when i spoke to you.. you have permission..

i think it all comes down to what it is exactly your talking about that makes copying bad i mean look at the news there always taking about the same stuff that happens in the world and it technicaly isnt copying becuase any body can talk about that topic. it doesnt belong to any one person becuase that just wouldnt be fair,but if its somthing that only concerns this one forum and there copying it then you can be mad or angry but unless you got it copywrited or something then you dont really have any control over it after all there always is that one amemdment that gives the people of america the freedom of speach :ermm: :...:

that is just it.. anything that is posted on our board, that wasn't taken from another source (like a news article) remains the sole property of this forum.

it really pisses me off when you have people who try to imitate us..

such as user group names, images, or post ranks..

as I have said before, if you can't be original, then don't fucking create a board..

it makes no damn sense.. when you have one board, and then others who copy from it..

it is sad.. and I am not just talking about people who copy from our board, but in general..

and it is not so much an exercise of free speech, as it is plagiarism .

and yes, there is something we can do about it.. we can have their board deleted by filing a report with Invisionfree.

It is copyrighted.. a piece of work, whether it is a graphic, music, or text, becomes copywritten by you the moment you create it.

It also becomes property of the site you posted it on.

But if it's something like sprites or a comic,that remains the property of
the person who made them,not the site,if it's not their site.

yes that would be the exception.. though, we would not take someone's work, and claim, or imply that it is ours..

that is why we always put a link to news articles, and other stuff like that..

what i am talking about is stuff that we have made for here, ideas, graphics, board descriptions, rules, faq's, topics, and other things that we had done for this forum..

so of course comics and other works, are copyrighted to their owners..

Let me ask something BA, who made the rules here?

We all did.

Bdx had rules at first, but they were too lenient.

TESM had rules, but they were too strict.

I wrote the current rules, and added Tesm's and BDX's.. and I have been adding new rules since..

But it doesn't matter whether they were written by me, or by Santa Claus.. those rules, were specifically written for this forum only.

Why do you ask?

BDX probably but BA has edited them probably with the help of VZ

...

Originally, there was 5, tesm's had 7 Mine have 14 (rule 15 doesn't really count since it just tells you to have fun..)

I kinda posted that 1 second after you did BA

oh ok..

Well because I was wondering who made all those rules, that makes people copy them. :ermm:

It is sad you know? I mean, they say they want their forum to have a system like our's here, but they won't get that if they copy the stuff that we have..

Every forum is different.. so the rules that were written, were for things that would apply here, and not anywhere else.

And it is not just rules that they copy, they copy usergroups, topics, post ranks, images, board names, descriptions, we even had someone who copied our chaos emeralds, and rings..

Why would you have a sub members, elite members, and pulled a judy winslow group, if you've JUST started your forum and have only 10 members?

We have a p.a.j.w. group for those who were active 2 years ago, but disappeared over the last year..

why would you have a group like that if your forum isn't a week old.. so this kid puts them in that group if they haven't been on for like 3 days..

It is pathetic.. VZ and I get pm'd from other members here telling us that someone had copied our forum.. naturally, we investigate, and then next thing we know, it is like we are in the twilight zone..

It ;s messed up, in our experience, when ever one of our members starts a new forum, it usually means that it will be another forum that will end up copying off of us..

Now you may think, "Well isn't that kinda cocky BA?" and you'd be right for thinking it, but it is not cocky if it has proven to be true 9/10.

The messed up thing is, you have members from this forum, that are members on that forum, and yet, they don't say shit to those who were copying our forum..

I am so tired of these people copying.. I really am..

I know this may not make sence
But be flattered
Out of the billions of forums the copying idiots copy you and you know why

Because YOU'RE THE BEST!

heh. Thanks, Mystic.. you and Mr. Nest said the same thing..

and you guys are right.. normally we'd be flattered, but after a while it just gets infuriating.

I know how you feel,Skylersilver copied my forum rules for his forum,but I was nice enough to let him off the hook this time.

Of course,it has nothing to do with HC,just I thought I'd explain I know how you feel.