Comment by trevor-e
5 years ago
I'm with you on this, reading the article I can't help but think the author is being intentionally naive about the situation and feelings on both sides. If anything, to me this reads like viral marketing to get the project off the ground.
The author builds a clone of a product for a former company, shares the project with the CEO, and expects them to be happy with it? And "out of nowhere" they are suddenly displeased with the project and (rightfully IMO) feel like some of it was copied from their business. What universe does this person live in? It's a fair point that several other competitors copy the UI and I'm not suggesting this is illegal or disallowed, just that there's a huge lack of common sense to think a former company would be happy to see a project like this.
The author is digging a further hole by making all this public, it's not a good look IMO. I'm all for competition but there's a severe lack of tact here.
> If anything, to me this reads like viral marketing to get the project off the ground.
That's assuming it is a "project" to "get off the ground" in the first place. What gave you the impression that this was something the author was going to try and take commercial? I never got that impression.
> It's a fair point that several other competitors copy the UI and I'm not suggesting this is illegal or disallowed
But you are suggesting it was that way around. I didn't quite see that either; on the contrary, I got a kind of distinct impression that some of these other projects predate Replit, including its UI design.
> That's assuming it is a "project" to "get off the ground" in the first place. What gave you the impression that this was something the author was going to try and take commercial? I never got that impression.
Experience. It's all too easy to say "oh I didn't _plan_ to make a business" and later on say "well with this overwhelming support I'd be stupid _not_ to make it a business."
> But you are suggesting it was that way around. I didn't quite see that either; on the contrary, I got a kind of distinct impression that some of these other projects predate Replit, including its UI design.
Oh sorry I did not mean to suggest Replit was the original creator of this UI, as you mentioned it looks like they all copy each other, I'll update my post. That's beside my point though. I will point out it's rather disingenuous of the author to not include a side-by-side comparison of Riju/Replit, instead he posts pictures of some other projects.