"Inspired by" Xenforo Style

[MilesDB]

How should I handle this?

Since nothing can really stop others from ripping your style, one way of handling this is to release it publicly. At least you won't have a constant feeling of being ripped off. Besides, doing so will nudge you to update your skin in a speedier manner with each new XenForo version release and gives you XenForo community's respect and beyond.

 

[Jason]

I've had this happen to me a couple of times (with no notification or attribution in most cases). At least he didn't rip your content, as well. I agree with those who suggested just shrugging it off. What he did wasn't cool, but it's also not worth losing any sleep over.

 

[Slavik]

Ddos

 

[CTXMedia]

Radical idea - change your style so it's different. I know that's extra work for you, and it doesn't stop him copying again (nothing much can stop people copying styles), but at least it will differentiate your sites.

Thankfully though, styles don't impact on content so at least he's not messing with your search results and threads/posts/membership.

Style stealing: annoying? - yes. Frustrating? - definitely. Shouldn't be allowed? - yup. But sadly we'll never avoid people who feel it is acceptable to take from others.

You could, of course, start a public thread in the place where he gets his forum software so you can shame him into changing his site, or at least maybe not doing it again!!!

 

[Peggy]

You could, of course, start a public thread in the place where he gets his forum software so you can shame him into changing his site, or at least maybe not doing it again!!!

That would be here.

 

[John]

How would you "have it taken down" ?

DMCA notice to his host.

Others have stated here, if he hasn't scraped content he hasn't really done any damage. I beg to differ. One's look is just as important in distinguishing yourself from others as is content. Borrowing bits and pieces of a design happens all the time but practically duplicating your look is going rather far...especially considering he didn't ask your permission first...he came along asking for forgiveness afterwards.

 

[Sadik B]

I am aware of several cases where people copy code, styles, graphics, site ideas, forum categories, thread topics, images and never tell the original creator. In fact, these people will flat out deny if the original author was to somehow find out. People remove links from MODs and styles which their creators give for free and only request the link to be kept.

So if I was in your place, I would thank him for letting me know and for the backlink and move on. There is absolutely no benefit to be had by wasting time sending angry mails to the site owner or their host. Plus, you never know, this guys site may get very popular and the backlink "may" help you immensely from seo point of view.

So let it be and move on. Just tell him that if he is to retain the style, the backlink MUST remain.

 

[erich37]

tell the guy to pay you $100 for using your style and then go for a nice dinner with your wife

 

[x4rl]

DMCA notice to his host.

Some hosts don't care and allow crazy stuff like that..

 

[syd430]

Hi Everyone,

I’m the owner of the site in question.

Firstly, I’m a big fan of what Mike and Kier have done with the software and would like to stick around on this forum, so wanted to set the record straight.

Secondly, It’s a bit unfortunate that our private conversations were posted, especially since we were still going back and forth discussing this privately as of late yesterday. It would also have been fairer to at least include all our messages in your original post, and not just some, in order to help others better judge the situation.

Here is my original message that I sent to you on the 13th of March (which was before I did anything):

Hello,

Nice site you've got here.

I am an Australian that is about to launch a student business and economics forum exclusively for Australia. The domain will have the .com.au TLD and in no way be related to your forum in terms of content, locality or targeted audience.

The forum will be running XenForo and the design you have created here at Forum Vancouver is outstanding, and to be perfectly honest, the look is a great match for my own site.

I was initially going to replicate the look of your forum as close as I could myself, minus the logos and anything else which identifies your site. However, I thought I would first politely ask you if I could purchase the relevant CSS, PHP, .tpl etc files from you directly, rather than struggling to replicate the design myself (which will take me quite some time as I am a business graduate and have little CSS or HTML experience).

I was thinking something like $100 for these files, and I would pay upfront through paypal or any other method.

Of course, I am not interested in selling or distributing your sites design and simply want it for my own forum. I will even give you the domain name of my site upfront also (its yet to be registered at this stage).

Really hope you will save me countless hours of editing!

Warm Regards

I then received the following reply:

Hi there,

Someone else approached me as well awhile back. I am rather uncomfortable with others trying to replicate my design, I'm sure you understand. I spent a significant amount of time creating a unique identity for my site. As such, I won't be sharing my template files.

I appreciate you letting me know your intention! Out of respect, I ask you not to make your site too similar to mine. Borrow elements and ideas, but please do not copy the layout, colours, etc. Xenforo is a wonder to work with even for CSS/HTML newbies, so creating your own unique look is not difficult! Plus, you can't beat the sense of accomplishment in doing so.

I trust you understand! If you do end up copying some of my design (again, please don't make it identical), I would appreciate a link back .. or perhaps a donation to the Japan-Earthquake relief fund.

Be sure to show me your work! Would love to see how it goes.

What I basically took away from your reply was that it would be ok to do so, so long as I don’t make it identical.

A month later I then redesigned the site, incorporating most of your design, gave you credit for it in the footer, then asked you what you thought of the design. I did this because I wanted your feedback in case you felt that it was too similar. I also made it clear that I was willing to make further changes until you were comfortable with it.

You then gave me a list of suggestions, and I actually agreed to take up your suggestions in my response:

Thanks, will have a look through your suggestions and will try and address. I guess i Will play around with the colour scheme and so on using a test style until I can get the look right (I suck at design, so will take me some time). I wont really have the time again to design the site for probably a few weeks, but it will be done. You wont have much to worry about it the meantime though because traffic to my site is minuscule for now.

So you can probably understand why im a bit surprised this thread was even created. It also makes me wonder if I should even bother to continue to make changes to the design just to make the owner happy, given what’s been happened now.

 

[Brett Peters]

So you can probably understand why im a bit surprised this thread was even created. It also makes me wonder if I should even bother to continue to make changes to the design just to make the owner happy, given what’s been happened now.

lol I would change the whole theme completely and still keep the inspired by link with a no follow, But thats just my sic sense of humour

 

[Forsaken]

Hi there,

Someone else approached me as well awhile back. I am rather uncomfortable with others trying to replicate my design, I'm sure you understand. I spent a significant amount of time creating a unique identity for my site. As such, I won't be sharing my template files.

I appreciate you letting me know your intention! Out of respect, I ask you not to make your site too similar to mine. Borrow elements and ideas, but please do not copy the layout, colours, etc. Xenforo is a wonder to work with even for CSS/HTML newbies, so creating your own unique look is not difficult! Plus, you can't beat the sense of accomplishment in doing so.

I trust you understand! If you do end up copying some of my design (again, please don't make it identical), I would appreciate a link back .. or perhaps a donation to the Japan-Earthquake relief fund.

Be sure to show me your work! Would love to see how it goes.

I don't see how you misunderstood that at all.

Posting this here might have been a bit much, however he mostly did so to see what could be done to remedy the action. He didn't insult you, he didn't rant so much as ask for advice, which in my opinion is more than most of us would do if our property is stolen.

While his design is nicely done, and looks very neat and professional, he did specifically request that you not make it to similar to his. You could have asked he you could use the general layout, and modify colors, and possibly a few other things, and he'd probably be perfectly okay with that.

While this seems to have been mostly a misunderstanding, couldn't you remove the style or work with him to change it enough that he'd be okay with your using it?

 

[syd430]

While this seems to have been mostly a misunderstanding, couldn't you remove the style or work with him to change it enough that he'd be okay with your using it?

Did you just read my post half way through and not read the rest?

 

[Forsaken]

Did you just read my post half way through and not read the rest?

I ignored that last bit because doing something in spite will only cause an escalation and damage to one or both of your reputations.

As I said, he came here asking for actions he could take, nothing more or nothing less. I couldn't care less about what you do, but you really only have one chance to clear up this issue as a misunderstanding, and remedy any damaged reputation. Things like this will always come to bite you in the ass, and a forum known to steal anything generally does poorly.

 

[Sador]

Did you just read my post half way through and not read the rest?

He's pretty much aiming at the "don't make it too identical", while the layout on your site is pretty much an exact copy of his.

Other than that, I agree that posting some of the private messages gives a wrong idea and should not be done, especially when he's still talking to you about it. You seem reasonable enough, considering you talked to him about it trough the whole process.

Personally, I'd suggest you'd modify your layout (colors, icons, general feeling) a bit so it doesn't feel like you're looking at the same site anymore. That way you could have a nice theme made by yourself, while he doesn't feel ripped off anymore and everyone can be happy once more.

 

[Shelley]

A few changes to the css and the look can still remain professional, differ from the original style and the conclusion = both parties happy. 10-15 minutes work is all it will take. So really, instead of the back and forth comments the little work that I propose you do will reap better results.

 

[syd430]

A few changes to the css and the look can still remain professional, differ from the original style and the conclusion = both parties happy. 10-15 minutes work is all it will take. So really, instead of the back and forth comments the little work that I propose you do will reap better results.

When they asked me to make further changes, I replied to them within an or hour and agreed to do so. They knew this.

So the changes will be made and at the end of the day they will be happy, but really, both parties will be happy? I probably can't post here again thanks to the misinformation that was spread here. Theres also people here encouraging DDoS attacks on my site and all sorts of other things, all over a dispute that never existed in the first place. But you don't care about all that right?

 

[CTXMedia]

You simply went too far and copied most all of the look.

If you're going to remedy that then I'm sure that will reflect positively and I'm sure you'll get on just fine and be perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the XF community.

But please, don't try to make out like you didn't know what you were doing.

It's a fair cop - put your hands up, say sorry, and make your site differenent enough - and that should be ample restitution!!

On the positive side, you've both got some free site promo out of it ... lol

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Peggy]

People here encouraging ddos attacks on your site?? I highly doubt that.

You posted here to try and straighten things out and some have tried to help you do that and you've replied with attitude.
I can understand that you're upset but don't take it out on the very people that you want to believe "your side" of the story.
And of course you can still post here, don' be silly.

 

[Shelley]

When they asked me to make further changes, I replied to them within an or hour and agreed to do so. They knew this.

So the changes will be made and at the end of the day they will be happy, but really, both parties will be happy? I probably can't post here again thanks to the misinformation that was spread here. Theres also people here encouraging DDoS attacks on my site and all sorts of other things, all over a dispute that never existed in the first place. But you don't care about all that right?

Don't even try twisting this around on me. I offered some sound advice, you can ignore it or do what I suggested but I'm not your punchbag and scapegoat because you can't take 10 minutes out and make a few css changes.Whatever is said between other members and threats made have nothing to do with me or if I care. I'm not the sympathetic type.