TRACK TWO
⟨ FUEGO ⟩

Today's topic is less of an opinion and more of an objective observation... To put it in short, if you disagree with this one I'll just assume you're purposefully stealing from other creators.

But let's say you feel called out by some of the points presented here, yet you recognize the problem at core: what to do? Does Feven think I'm unredeemable and that I should just die and rot in hell? Well, absolutely not! If I was born perfect I wouldn't have even noticed people did this, and many creators nowadays are very young, so I do not have the same expectations for them that I have for authors around my age; I, however, think that to improve as authors we need to receive some ❪ constructive ❫ feedback from others in our same field. So let's make this a constructive comment instead of a mean one!

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I hardly see anyone properly crediting the creators they're inspired by lately, although I do have to say this quite improved in recent times.

❪ No shit, there were quite a few callouts in the last few days... ❫

But as for many things, there are different versions of this problem.

ㅤ ❪ 01. ❫ ㅤ LAYOUTS ─ full credits.

There are some creators who authorize others to use their layouts as long as whoever is stealin- I mean borrowing their layout also asks and credits the creator they got inspired by.

❪ We'll talk of how I feel about this whole thing another time because it's more subjective and it's not the right time either. ❫

If you ask Person A for their layout and they tell you to ask Person B and Person C and credit them too since it takes a bit from them, you better do that. You're disrespecting both the original creators by not giving them their deserved acknowledgement for their hard work, but also putting Person A in a difficult position: what will Person B and Person C think if Person A can't even ensure the most basic agreement is fully respected?

ㅤ ❪ 02. ❫ ㅤ LAYOUT/GRAPHICS ─ "credits to original owners".

?????

What does that even mean. Who are you crediting.

I don't mean to be rude but this one is just plain silly, because... Who's the original owner? What does that do for them? Absolutely nothing. That's just you absolving yourself from claiming the work is yours, which for some content creators is just fine, but for most it's not ❪ rightfully so ❫.

Nothing else to say. Simple as that.

ㅤ ❪ 03. ❫ ㅤ GRAPHICS ─ "credits to pinterest/tumblr/etc. for resources/inspo".

This is just the same problem in a different font, and also more frequent.

Neither Pinterest nor Tumblr are to be credited for any inspiration you take from anyone on there. Those are merely some platforms where people post their own work ❪ and for the first one, sometimes it's not even original but just unauthorized reposts... ❫. If you take inspiration or resources from someone there, credit the specific user! And check within their post if you're allowed to take inspiration too.

Side note: I saw someone blatantly using a green screen I also found on YouTube for the same type of GIF ❪ for which I credited the original creator, mind you ❫, but claimed the edit was theirs. You know you have to credit green screen creators on YouTube too, right...

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I think this is all for today! I can't come up with other specific examples that irk me, except for one which ties into another topic so I'd rather discuss it there. In case there's anything else, though, feel free to tell me in comments!

And I hope no one is offended - but if you are, that's on you. Again, it costs nothing to be respectful and properly credit other creators, and even if you didn't do it until now you can still change your ways.

Final note: This is one of the very few topics in which I have more strict views ❪ = one of the few for which I'll tell you to just block if you disagree ❫. Often times I won't have this approach as this is more meant to feature opinions than anything, but I thought that starting with something more 'objective' was a good idea. See you in the next part!