and maybe in your ca
[2022-10-30 08:16:58 PM] : and maybe in your case they more explicitly copied you, which wasn't the case for me, but still I'm not sure what picking a fight gives you. like, what successful outcome can you imagine?
1 Reply
[2022-10-30 08:23:52 PM] : Thanks Itamar. The successful outcome I could image is more attention to my work in general (tutorials, screencasts, this tool, etc…). I’d say this is from other folks who are in the same community so my thinking was it’s relevant and “calling them out” would garner more attention. The negative outcome would be thinking it was silly for me to them call out, who cares that it’s a clone of my work (or they don’t even think it’s a copy) so they go use their stuff instead and I lose the credibility & trust i’ve worked hard to gain.
[2022-10-30 08:24:32 PM] : But again, my judgement is clouded through emotion. To your point, they didn’t do anything wrong, this is all my problem.
[2022-10-30 08:27:05 PM] : probably your audience gives you attention because you provide them with useful information? and calling people out apriori does not sound useful to your audience
[2022-10-30 08:28:09 PM] : (for my tool I suspect it will never be as featureful as competitor, I just don't have the time, but I am trying to emphasize its ease of use and simplicity and good UX in general. and some people will still use it, I haven't seen a decline in usage)
[2022-10-30 08:29:34 PM] : Your situation sounds more closely matching that basecamp link i posted. They are the thousand pound gorilla.
[2022-10-30 08:30:21 PM] : I mean, it's all open source, I'm trying to collaborate with them, and it's fun talking to people who work on same problem
[2022-10-30 08:30:37 PM] : my tool is in the end, as marketing tool, somethign to push people to my own paid products
[2022-10-30 08:31:03 PM] : so if I don't have massive success with it, oh well, as logn as it's helping someone that's nice
[2022-10-30 08:31:27 PM] : and might increase chance of them buying something
[2022-10-31 02:08:51 PM] : > your audience gives you attention because you provide them with useful information? and calling people out apriori does not sound useful to your audience
[2022-10-31 02:09:08 PM] : this is a very clear and salient point, wanted to call it out :+1:
[2022-10-31 02:11:38 PM] : I've also found that copycats tend to vanish.
not always, but often. and sometimes it's just a matter of time.
it's frustrating for sure, but in the end, it's more likely that you being distracted by them will do more damage than they'll do directly to you.
[2022-10-31 02:24:37 PM] : I should also add that I definitely do spend the 5 minutes on DMCA takedowns for people who literally copy my article (most annoyingly some really terrible site that still comes up higher on search engine results than mine, probably because their content marketing strategy is thinly veiled theft). but there there's at least a chance of some good result.
[2022-10-31 05:29:52 PM] : > …and calling people out apriori does not sound useful to your audience
this is a very clear and salient point, wanted to call it outYes, very good points. Thank you. I would agree that calling this out to my EXISTING audience is of zero help to them. But… calling this out to folks that are not currently part of my existing audience, may. I’m viewing this as nothing more than an ebomb for those that are not a part of my audience (yet). “hey you, yes YOU. you didn’t know about these fixes over here. well… that pain you’re having, i have some fixes for it too (and by the way, that 1 other fix you just saw plastered all over the place, yea… it’s just a straight up, unoriginal copy of my fix). in fact… and here’s the exciting part! i’ve got a lot of fixes for a lot of your pains that you won’t be finding from copycats. here, come check them out. it’s free for the taking, devour as much as you desire!” In my mind, this takes a similar form to the approach mentioned in stacking the bricks blog:
“Name and shame. A lot of people will blot out the name of a hater when they attack in private. Screw that. They’re not paying you to protect them.”>
“Respond in public. I’m pretty sure this habit of mine is why I get far fewer trolls than many other people in my position (especially women). If somebody tweets bile at me, I respond so that all 16,000 of my followers can see it while I cut them down.”Yes, this is not exactly the same (how does one define “haters”), but there are similarities here.
it’s more likely that you being distracted by them will do more damage than they’ll do directly to you.but then there’s this gnawing at me. part of me see’s calling it out (picking a fight) as an ebomb to drive awareness to my fixes. the other part of me see’s exactly as you’ve pointed out. I’ve always taken the latter route (it’s warn, fuzzy & safe) never once have I taken the former route. :thinking_face: