Curb-control, Ian Kilpatrick:
I think zines of the online design community are like brothers. They have an affinity for each other but are very competitive. This is the element that keeps the online design community on the most cutting edge of all edges that cuts. I love it. If it were just a group of similar-minded designers doing their thing, what would it all be worth? I have never felt ripped off. I would be completely flattered, though, if I were.



Computerlove, Christophe Martin:
No. We've just shared a stange impression with our launching, but I can't tell you more because it's just an impression.


Digital Thread, Filip Stoj:
Watch out for those sneaky Euros — the Brits and Swedes in particular. They'll rip off your idea, change it around, come up with a completely fresh look for it, and then call it their own. As if we're really falling for it! Not that I have any examples. Just anyone who makes shit look so good, nope, don't trust 'em. Same thing goes for anyone who went to school for design.




www.digital-web.com (screen shot)

Digital-web, Nick Finck:
You know, when I first had the idea of of creating an online magazine I thought about the other sites out there, and how I wanted to be like they were..."Man, XYZ site rocks, I need to do something like that." And then, after time it hit me..."We are not XYZ site, XYZ site does a fine job of being themselves, we are different we appeal to a different audience."





Design is Kinky, Andrew Johnston:
I think the main people behind the zines are very united and not very competitive at all. We constantly help each other by supporting projects, or giving advice, or helping out in other ways. I don't feel competitive at all. We do what we do, and they do what they do. If they are sometimes similar, then so what! Who does it hurt? For example, we have been doing designer profiles/interviews for close to three years now, and we're pretty much the first design site to start focusing on them. However this does not mean that other sites that have come up since then cannot do interviews. It would be stupid to think that way. We have had our ideas and layout "ripped off" quite a few times and my reaction has changed a lot over the years. A couple years ago, I would get really angry and aggressive and act like an idiot basically. But I have learnt to not take it so seriously and to just laugh at it. In the end, it really means nothing. All they are is web sites for crying out loud. What's the point in getting all aggressive? That's why I don't understand the negativity that we have seen on a lot of forums lately. I just don't see why people are getting so worked up over nothing. If they are bored, maybe they should go create something rather than taking out their frustration's on obvious targets. It's so pathetic that you just have to laugh.



Experimental Magazine, Rares Dragan:
Coming up with a great concept idea, highly original and innovative, and then finding that the same idea was already developed somewhere else — this is how I felt the competitive side of the design community was.

Although, highly respected people inside the design community support Experimental Magazine by contributing with artwork and interviews. Along with the very intense activity in our showcase forum thread, is what makes me think about the commune goals of these designers, their respect for art and their power to do something special. I think this aspect keeps them united, more than just a forum, or a portal, or a deep admiration for a web site, or anything else.

Like most of the web sites that have something new, Experimental was ripped multiple times. The first experience was when we discovered that a quite popular hip-hop magazine was stealing our layout to provide news and mp3 downloads. My first reaction was explosive, feeling hurt, and thinking that I can't do anything about it because at that time, the hip-hop magazine had at least 10 times more visitors a day than we had. But then, I was overwhelmingly impressed by the support I was receiving inside the community. Imagine Experimental members trying to hack that hip-hop mag and sending them hate emails. In the end everything went ok. Afterwards, my reaction for "Experimental-ripps" were much more calmer, and now the only thing I do about it is posting the ripps in the Experimental forum. To let people decide if it is a "good quality" ripp or just a bad joke.




Halfproject, Drew Europeo:
Yes, I think so. Because almost every month I am seeing a lot of design communities whom change/update their sites regularly, and that's where the competition arises. Of course the community that is up tight with competition are the ones who are being recognized widely. And since all of us are doing similar things, the number of visitors are very important (i.e. it is where we gauge how well the site is doing). The more people who are participating, the more establish the site can be. Personally, both my sites grafikas.com (portfolio and experimental site) and halfproject.com (design community portal) were being ripped off by some people. My stand in regard of this is its not a nice act, because I have put a lot of effort and creativity to my works. I hate to see other people whom will just "literally copy" my work and display it on their own site — and also the worst part is they get full credits for it). What I did was: I announced it on my sites that those people had ripped me off, and I even emailed them asking to take my artwork off their site. In some cases, if they get inspiration from my site and create an inspired version, similar but not exact — I don't email them anymore, because at least they put some effort into it. I know someday when they have established their own style, hopefully their design styles will evolve and will look different from mine.



Inertia, Peter Hamza:
In my opinion, the design community is both competitive and united at the same time. Competition is what keeps things going on. It's essential for evolution. Although there are a lot of individuals and groups with different visions competing with each other. I still think the design community is a big family.

There are are two sites in Hungary heavily copying our layout. It's a mixed feeling because you see that your layout is good (otherwise they wouldn't copy it ), but then again, it's YOUR idea (grin). I haven't done anything about it yet and I don't think I should. I ripped off a site once, and I felt very bad about it even when I made a lot of changes and improvements to the original design. So I asked the designer of the original site (one of my most respected designers') if I could publish my similar version or not? I expected some heavy criticism, but to my surprise the guy wrote that he liked my site. However, this doesn't mean that I won't get upset, if I see the copy site somewhere else with the same colors and graphics with only the title changed.




www.australianinfront.com.au (screen shot of site)


INfront, Justin Fox:
I think we're all influenced by similar things and each other to some extent. I think designers will always be competitive. But at INfront we do try to promote being in competition with yourself and not others. We have not felt so ripped off. Many sites out there have projects similar to INfront's projects but it only makes us want to focus on creating more projects which haven't been done before. And we'll only get upset if someone has used our graphics for a money situation which has happened and we successfully got them to take the work down.



Infourm, JD hooge:
I don't worry too much about that kind of thing. My attention goes to things that are unique and well executed. I am always interested in those who constantly push themselves. And as far as I'm concerned, competition is completely natural and healthy. It keeps you on your toes.



K10k.net, Toke Nygaard:
We often get copied and imitated. I guess that is part of the whole thing, and this was how we started out as well, getting inspired and "borrowing ideas." But we only tried to learn, and never stole people's things as such. When-ever we have people stealing our code and graphical elements, we send out evil letters of warning.

I think the whole web scene has a lot in common, but I see no reason to try and do the same as the next man. The users of these sites don't see that either; they will mercilessly go on using other sources if what you "provide" is not original enough.




www.linkdup.com (screen shot)


Linkdup, Rob Corradi:
I would say they are definitely more "united" than "competitive". I think one of the main reasons they are different is that the people running them started them up because they felt that a particular area of interest or focus wasn't being covered well. Sure, many trade in the same links and interview the same people, but that's a small cross-over between them all. They still have their own identities, tone of voice, attitude, and things that they alone cover or do.

As for rip-offs, yes the blatant ones can be annoying, but we've learnt not to really get too worked up about them anymore. It's all dependant on context at the end of the day — is it really that damaging? Usually not. Plus web users are savvy people, they know who did what first so it's no big deal. Whenever linkdup (or any of our commercial sites for that matter) get ripped, we get inundated with emails of people tipping us off, it can be funny sometimes. A linkdup-style porn site was one of the best. On another level, as a designer I know it can be hugely difficult sometimes not to emulate something you've seen and loved, especially if it seems a perfect solution for a project you're working on. But resist the temptation, or at the very least push the idea and execution so much further that by the time it's finished, it's not really the same thing at all. Some of the web's best known designers started off doing work very similar to what was around at the time, but very quickly developed their own style. Consequently, ready to be emulated and learnt from by a new generation of designers.

Moluv, Maurice Wright:
The design community is both competitive and cooperative. I can't imagine the folks at Linkdup, Surfstation, and Kaliber 10000 ever being satisfied with being second best at anything web related, which is why their sites and related work are so exceptional. Competitive? Yes. On the other hand, using those three sites as examples again, the whole concept behind them is to give the rest of the community a chance to be heard by linking sites and information from the community. I don't know if "united" describes what they are doing as well as the word "supportive" or "cooperative" does, though.

I've seen a couple of designs that seemed to be inspired by the design of Moluv, but they were completely original and very well done. I haven't felt ripped off by anything like that. I did, however, find a site in Japan that started to use the name Moluv for their hip-hop web site after Moluv.com was introduced. That was irritating. Mostly because the site didn't look good.



Media Inspiration, Phil De Paulis:
Well its really hard to say, I believe that the design community is divided into two separate groups, those who are strictly competitive and those who have a real artistic passion for what they do. The competitive individual solely enjoys the thrill of succeeding others in design, where as the "passionate individual" enjoys the mere design element and feedback from their peers whether its good or bad. (I consider myself the passionate one).

I've seen Media Inspiration ripped off many times, and it totally boggles my mind on how individuals could go and duplicate someone's work. The site is meant to be a source of inspiration, not a place to go steal ideas. It's a place where we can grow as individuals, not a place where you can take the easy way out. I firmly believe however, that the community at large is pretty smart and we all know who the imitators are.





Netdiver, Carole Guevin:
The new media community exists — no doubt about it. Aren't we all in need of constantly learning? But does that make us less competitive (hard to understand the pie that divides the world)? Are we united? These questions are definitely a topic of deep thinking. I wish, in the near future to pursue setting up an informal, but yet, serious study of the community websociological behavior. Since the dotcom failures, bad press and upped resistance from potential clients. Unfortunately, I am observing a vast array of negative results: people I know who were BIG names are struggling to find clients, the level of world wide waste continue to rise (aka commercial sites built by non-professionals), the angst to express is higher. Yet, from a design perspective the cycle of new and exciting interface research, projects, and a required level of creativity is in statu quo. So I guess this is some kind of an indication that there's a "depression" state mostly in North America and Europe. Elsewhere, creativity is booming! I don't intend to say that the economic situation is better off, just that these designers are really pushing forward. On the bright side, I think there is a slow comeback with much more depth given to pursuing projects online now. The real players are rooting.