I'm not going to point fingers here, but there is a flaw with the generator functions.

When you save a design you have two options: keep it all to yourself, or share with the entire world.

Personally, I like letting my friends easily just search my name in the generator and look through my designs whenever they want without a hassle of searching forums, PM'ing for a link, or posting dozens of images, so I make them public.

BUT... this comes with a risk. And I'm not the only victim of it.

Some players will take these public designs, make them without asking for permission from the one who designed them or giving them any credit whatsoever, and then they'll sell those offspring for profit when the design was never theirs to begin with.

For one: this is just plain rude. I'm sure everyone can agree there.

For two: often these designs are made from players who have intentions to MAKE THAT DESIGN themselves, but want to get a general idea of the interest or want it to be easy for friends to see. Sometimes they already HAVE the project made, and suddenly someone else makes another and undercuts their offspring prices. Seriously, some players are that rude... Not many, of course, but it happens. And it hurts. And some players have resorted to going 100% private on designs to keep it from happening again.


So my suggestion to give players a third option - a FRIENDS ONLY share. This negates the risk of designs being outright stolen while still having the benefit of friends sharing designs with a network of friends.

(I'm pretty confident that most people wouldn't steal a design from a friend. If they do, then honestly, why be friends with them at all? Friends should at least be respectful enough to ask first.)

Seconded, seconded, seconded. (This is so necessary)

I think it's a great idea, since design theft is incredibly annoying, especially when the person that takes the design tries to compete with your own sales.

I second this!

My designs are like art - my intellectual property. Finding ways to limit it being taken intentionally without my knowledge is a must. I recognize people come up with similar designs naturally, but there are also those which are knowingly taken. There are only three competitive advantages in the Sylestia market outside of designs themselves : price, max statting, and infertility. If our design is taken and we choose price point, we must price competitively meaning we must adhere to their pricing regardless of how it affects our bottom line. We can in infertilize our pets as a means to protect ourselves. However after it's been stolen, infertilization is only in place to prevent over breeding and hurts over all sales. The only real sustainable competitive advantage is max statting. If you have a max statted design, your product is favored to those who favor higher end combat - but to those who don't, the other has a better price tag for the same aesthetic. This narrows the market, cuts into sales, and max statting is very costly in terms of time and money. In the long run, we have little way to protect ourselves from this occurrence.

Xavion's suggestion won't stop all instances of this, but it will stop a great deal. This idea provides us a method to test our designs in a sample market of our choosing. Being able to have more control in this environment means less over all risk. Those who take designs from outside this environment must go to our personal stables, threads, find it through advanced search, or even the pet itself - which means they know the design has been created first. Right now it's very easy to lift designs impersonally from the generator with no knowledge of whether they've been created or are currently being sold.

I agree with all of this

This. So much this. I have had my designs taken and generated out from under me, claimed as someone else's design, re-saved under other user's names, and even entered in design contests as someone else's design. So far I've been able to calmly and amicably deal with these situations, but it is distressing. If I could have it set to friends only, though? That would make me very happy. I know I can trust the integrity of the people I've friended on this site, so I wouldn't even hesitate to show my designs to them. Right now, though, I'm one stolen design away from putting all of my designs to private.

Another thing that might make things slightly better would be not being able to put public designs directly into the generator. This wouldn't stop someone determined to steal the design, of course, but it might make it a little more difficult, and therefore slightly less likely to be done? Still, I would prefer a 'friends only' option.

I definitely and completely agree with this. I am so done with dealing with people who claim/use my designs, and I think this would help a lot in preventing that from happening.

I can't stand stolen designs being entered into contests.

AAAAAAAA all my support

I agree- no one has stolen my designs, but I know for sure that others have had their ideas stolen. I've seen way too many similar designs for the regen design contests people hold.

(sorry if I wasn't supposed to ping)

sounds reasonable to me c: