Dear housing community,
I understand that this theme is very polarizing, disturbing and can cause a lot of bad emotion. I still think that it should be discussed. If you want to participate in this discussion, I want you to follow some rules to avoid escalation.
Do not mention the name of the person who maybe stole an idea or build
Do not use language which you wouldn't use in front of a six-year-old bright-eyed child.
I know that a lot of feelings were hurt, but it doesn't help to end this discussion in a back and forth of accusations. I want to find ideas how to manage this problem and maybe ways to avoid the whole stuff somehow. Help me. But please, stay kind.
Like every builder, I look at other builds. I see a lot of great ideas, and sometimes I use one or two of them. Sometimes without recognizing it, sometimes because it is just the idea I was missing the entire time. But I don't rebuild what I saw, I try to create my own version with my own twist. I think that is ok. maybe I should name the idea of origin, but since there are so many builds, it is sometimes difficult where I got the inspiration from. Happens all the time and whoever created the first toilet, sink, coffee or washing machine is a genius. I don't know the names, but all of these ideas are used a lot in modern housing in a lot of different variations. This is possibly copying, but I think it is acceptable for most of us.
But there are also different builds. Builds which doesn't copy only a part of the build, but recreate the basic layout, sometimes even the complete build stone for stone. Perhaps there is a bit of variation, but basically it is a complete copy.
I talked with some of the people who got copied this way. The people I talked with, weren't happy about it. Every housing build takes time and a lot of effort. Mostly weeks, in some cases months.
None of the people I talked to was asked for permission. There was no kind of agreement about being copied. And the name of the creator and the place where you can find the original version isn't mentioned anywhere.
These builds were posted on eht. If you get public, there is some kind of reason for that. This is not a quiet rebuild to build up the own building skills. You go public when you want some recognition as a builder. You want to show what you made, and you are proud of it. You want comments, guestbook entrées, the whole show.
But: what fame is there to get if the ideas you present are all stolen?
Question is: how to handle these kinds of dark copies? If it is all about fame, the easiest way is maybe to cut off the fame. I have the fantasy that all housing guilds could cooperate to avoid these situations.
You could start a black list where people are named who made very similar copies of other builds. Or you could start an open white list where people post pictured of their builds, tell that it got copied and say that the original creation is from them. Maybe there are better ideas I just haven't found. But well, here we are and maybe there are better solutions. Maybe one person who copied other builds has a very good explanation why the copy got on eht without mentioning the original build.
Help me. Help the people who got copied. Help the people who copy other builds find their own ideas and their own version of building. Housing is great. And it should be great for everyone.
Mashia
PS.: The Person who inspired me to write this article retracted their builds from eht. I am very thankful for this, even when I won't have nice screenshots for you as examples. But this is not the first time this happened, nor will it be the last time.
PS2: I am no native English speaker. Please excuse any errors.