Why I Do Not Support RPGSolo.com

For the simple reason that I cannot support someone who takes other people's work, changes it minimally, slaps his name in front, doesn't credit the original author (until enough of a stink is raised), and then asks for donations or tries to profit based on the work they copied.

The profiting isn't an inherent problem, but the aforementioned attitude is.

If it wasn't for the issue being raised, and opinions expressed elsewhere, credit would never have been given. In some cases, when it was given (a whole year after RPGSolo went online), it was grudgingly and in a backhanded way, because the owner of the site, if you believe their supporters, did not feel the original designers deserved credit.

The words speak for themselves:

http://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-684420.html

Multiple times it's advertised as something that implements already existing "top systems", but he fails to credit some of them even as he draws comparisons to them. Even the site's fans make the same comparisons (even down to how they're named):

"Rush Wright June 10, 2013 at 6:44 PM
By the way, while we're on the topic of Story Cubes, I'd like to point out that Mark at rpgsolo.com implemented a tool not unlike Rory's Story Cubes (they're called Mark's Adventure Glyphs, heh, heh). They're great, too - check 'em out!"

http://solonexus.blogspot.com/2013/06/new-rorys-story-cubes-mix-sets.html?showComment=1370904265518#c367882085039135193


Another fan's comment:

"The second site is SoloRPG. John gave it a mention in SoloNexus, but it's such a great site that I'm going to give it a second one. Basically, it's like an organized collection of tools used to play solo RPGs with. Sort of. There are loads of awesome features already included (like a Rory's Story Cubes clone specially suited for solo roleplaying, genre-sensitive random word generators, an automated Mythic GME implementation, etc), and there are more on the way - the developer is very active"

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-281538.html

Yet a friend of the owner came here to argue that they were completely different. When it benefited their marketing, equating MAG to Rory Story Cubes was fine, but when I called it a copy cat, all of a sudden they were completely different. The put downs of one of the very products that "inspired" the "completely different" product soon followed.

"There is now a mobile version of Mark's Adventure Glyphs. Point your mobile device to http://www.rpgsolo.com/mag/. Take THAT Rory's Story Cubes! (pwned!)"

 The immediate response to bringing up this behavior was to create a now deleted thread trying to rally the troops to the site's defense:

It's pretty sketchy to copy something, not credit it, attack it as inferior yet at the same time try to get donations based on it (the site has had a tin cup front and center since the beginning):

And despite the some people coming here to deny it, the truth eventually came out:

http://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Gauging-interest-in-mobile-offline-version?pid=1136#pid1136

How ironic it is given that his buddy Slaad1, came by to swear the site was never nor would ever be about profiting:

If you have some sort of personal problem with me because of this page, my advice to you is to save yourself the comment and go pound sand. If you're down with what RPGSolo is doing, that's on you.