Staff members copying your forum?

Has it ever happened to you where your staff members have copied you behind your back? It recently happened to me where Bamboo (Aka Shane, Juice, Off-Topic, SplashStudios, Spankz), who was apart of our Community Team had decided to start an admin forum without me knowing about it. I found it through another forum and I went to check it out and I saw his forum structure, and he completely copied us there with the way the forums were placed, and then I went through some threads which he copied and slightly reworded them. An example of a thread being copied in particular:

Original AdminBB thread:


His:


And the funny thing is he was using a nulled version of xenforo, now he is planning to switch to MyBB, and this is what he told me on his other site http://zongahost.com/:


I was kind enough to not ban him but he blew that by copying our content. So how would you deal about staff members like this?

 

I don't have time for copycats, I just remove them from staff, ban them and then also ban them from viewing the sites content as well via the wonderful IP Deny Manager

 

I do that as well but I like giving people chances.

 

If people cannot come up with their own unique things, and resort to copying, then they don't deserve a chance in my books, as they blew it when they copied the content...End of Story!

 

Yea I know, people like this amaze me. This is not the first time either, I have been copied many many times.

 

Copycats end up in the dust, just my competitor forum, they copy our threads, and things that we do. We banned their main account, and we continue to grow - while they're declining. Nobody likes a copycat forum, they usually die on their own - as owners get bored, and can't devote as much time as the person they're copying.

 

If you want to copy some thing from some one then ask first
they may never know they might get a yes

 

Kaiser I want to start an Admin forum, na but seriously Same happened to me they called it...

GamingParadise :S

 

Well some people just don't see the difference from being inspired and copying other peoples stuff.

I mean it's OK to go and make something similar, but to copy everything that's just stealing.

I have no problem when a person asks me to use something that I made but I sue them and make ure their content get's removed if they copy me without asking.

But I never had the experience of someone copying my forum and I hope I never will.

 

it seems bamboo closed his forum.

 

Indeed I did.

 

Why are on Spankz?

 

My account Bamboo got banned. But I removed the forum and working on a custom MyBB theme and content.

 

So Bamboo was banned so you joined as a female?

 

Wait, what. I joined as a female? Let me go fix that.

 

It's happened once before with the forum I'm not the owner of--one kid decided he wanted the same forum (going so far as to copy forum structure/descriptions verbatim, but on free software and led by a bunch of inexperienced children. We had a good laugh about it in the staff forum and watched as their staff members got banned, argued, and the site died off.

 

Im not sure why you think you can join back when I permanently banned your name and IP. Join one more time it will be a complete waste again as you will just get banned again. You really do amaze me.

 

Wow this is sad. Yea if you ask first you never know. If you don't ask this just makes it worse for yourself.

 

I agree, if he would've asked than maybe things would have been better, but it still doesnt change how he copied my content, and used nulled software which is piracy and illegal.

 

Wow, that's just sick. If we were using a paid software, and someone tried copying us by using a nulled version of the same thing that we worked so hard to pay for, I'd be getting the ban hammer out so fast it would make your head spin. I don't have time for copycats, as there are other things I could be doing online than trying to hunt these people down. I wouldn't even THINK of giving people like this a second chance, even though I'm usually sensitive that way by nature... If they kept coming back, well, I'd just keep banning them till they gave up, especially if all they were on the forum to do was to steal content. And actually, Kaiser, I believe you can also report him to his host as well, can you not? Because he's using a nulled version of Xeneforo? Also, I will no longer be joining this particular administrator's forums if he's going to keep copying everyone else and not coming up with his own stuff. Not happening!