I’m suuuure she’s telling the truth - all prey are meant to be treated as such~

Yeah you’d have to either make a thread of information (hard to follow), or condense your idea down greatly. Both options suck, compared to a focused topic board with the ability to express ANYTHING. These current platforms treat letters like a commodity - it’s ideas they should be valuing more.

Forums had a lasting value that I miss. Treasure troves of conversations, information gathering, and all sorts of internet shenanigans, falling by the wayside in favor of… oh, wait, the invite link to a specific discord server expired. Guess we’ll never know?

All of this is really to say, I wish we lived in an ideal world where plagiarism wasn’t used to make money off of being unoriginal. The more you bring to the table, the better of a person you become, which enables you to do more and greater things with your life - a feedback loop of positivity.

This also isn’t a jab at remix culture - the repurposing of ideas is a valid form of creativity, the more you mix and mash the better! And neither should this discredit those who started their creative journey by copying (everyone does it). But as you grow, your work needs something… you, in it.

Inspiration is not plagiarism, and ideas (in an ideal world) should not be closed-source. But it sucks to see people actively refuse to find their voice and instead reap the rewards of others who developed theirs.

Go out in the world and make something new. You’ll be happier and better for it. 💜