Re: Website

by "Kehvan M. Zydhek" <kehvan(at)zydhek.net>

 Date:  Fri, 8 Jun 2001 15:45:46 -0700
 To:  "Jonathon Stevens" <jon(at)3spadefx.com>,
"business list" <hwg-business(at)hwg.org>
 References:  vulcan pavilion
  todo: View Thread, Original
Jonathon,

You said,

===========================
      I'm wondering if you asked Susan for permission to email this letter
to loanlenders?  One very important thing comes to mind in a case like this:
how do you know Susan didn't rip the other site off and is looking for ways
to justify it.  No offense intended Susan, but you could have, just as
easily, taken their design and improved on it in the last few months.  Their
design could also have been on a different domain than loanlenders.com,
therefore making the 'registration date' unimportant.
      I'm more looking at it from the perspective that you shouldn't act on
someone's behalf without their permission to do so.  Let Susan handle it,
that's why she asked for the list's advice, not the list's action.
===========================

Because if you look at the SOURCE CODE for the two sites, you'll see they
use the SAME CSS file, that being "bestStyle.css" -- sure, the copiers could
have gone and named it that because it was the best stylesheet, but that's
very doubtful, considering that Susan's site is for "Best Rate Funding".
While I'm sure not everyone does this, most everyone I know names CSS files
based on the site they belong to.

Further, as mentioned by others, certain pages on LoanLenders do not
function properly, where they are seamless in BestRate.

Finally, after two emails that I know of to LoanLenders (mine and one other
from this list), the navigation graphics have been changed to text links on
LoanLenders... a surer sign of guilt cannot be given, as one who was in the
right would not make a quick change like that -- and that's one hell of a
coincidence if it WASN'T associated with them stealing Susan's work. Now
that the navigation graphics are missing, I can't send you off for proof,
but they were the SAME graphics used on Susan's site, and on Susan's site,
the colors didn't clash...

Now, as to you, Jonathon, I'm sure you mean well in your comments, which are
all quite valid, but did you bother to do any research into this before
trying to publicly ostracise me or Susan? Did you compare the two sites,
side-by-side, seeing how they functioned and looked? Did you view page
sources to see how they compared? I suspect if you had, you would not have
made the comments you did in your posting.

As for requesting Susan's permission, technically, that would be necessary
for sending someone's comments to someone else. In this case, however, after
performing all the research and comparisons I describe above, I was so
furious with the blatantly OBVIOUS copy that I simply sent off an email to
LoadLenders customer service email, the "web designer's" email (at the
bottom of the main page), Susan, and the list. OBVIOUSLY, it got people's
attention. I was much more polite than "anonymous" who called them what they
are -- scum. I don't know how many other people from this list blasted
LoanLenders without CCing or BCCing a copy to this list, but obviously
things ARE changing... While Susan asked for people's opinions, those of us
who have read Susan's posts in the past, have seen her work, and in a way
feel like we "know" Susan were outraged by this theivery (again, which can
be proved by seeing which site actually WORKS and checking
subtle-yet-obvious things, like included-file names). I reacted as a friend,
but more importantly, as a third-party visitor (read: potential customer) to
both sites who can tell where copies are made and misused, and decided they
would not get away with this.

Now, regarding just sitting around and discussing what can be done rather
than take action NOW, are you saying, Jonathon, that if you saw someone's
bag get stolen on the street that you would just turn a blind eye away from
that and maybe later discuss it over cigars and brandy with your friends, or
would you make chase to at least TRY to bring the theif to justice?

Kehvan

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