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I have a daily Google News alert looking for anything containing “ExpressionEngine”. It dug up this little gem:

http://www.icanfreelance.com/freelancers/freelance-work/Clone-This-Website-1216759926.html

Maybe the domain should be “ICanSteal.com”.

Just thought you all might get a giggle out of it… and maybe EllisLab will want to monitor it.

That’s incredible! I can’t even find a “report listing” button or the like on there.

Well, I don’t see anything wrong with saying you want a site “like” this one, so it might just be a matter of semantics. And no offense to the EE people, but the layout for the main page isn’t that amazing. It is what it is, but it’s pretty simple. I’ve seen much more complex layouts in the “site introductions” forum.

What’s really funny about this is the turn around for some of the bids. 21 days to steal a design? I’ve done it in an hour…,er, I mean it could be done in an hour.

If only there were ways to view the code, CSS, and scripts, or maybe even download all the files.

Or, hell, who knows, maybe a quick email to the EE people asking for the template. Not saying they would, just seems like an easy place to start.

Having the layout and scripts doesn’t mean you will have a tasty site.

I sometimes laugh when people complain about this. I can imagine the hours or design and work that goes into a good layout, and think people should be compensated for this, but what I don’t usually understand is why someone would want someone else’s layout. Even given it, you still have to come up with decent content, graphics, and put together everything else required to make a site not suck!

I remember someone stole the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) layout, and I remember thinking, that would be the easiest layout to reproduce, so why not just role your own? And as much as I like that site, personally, I hate reading white on gray. Different text color, different background, and a different graphic, and you have a “clone,” but you’ve made it your own (in the case of the stolen layout in this one they didn’t do any of this). I’ve just saying, even given the “clone” there’s still a lot to do if you want to make a site that’s your own.

It’s not like there aren’t 10,000 tutorials including code for multi-column layouts out there. And I’ve yet to meet the designer who wouldn’t tell you how they did something.

Oh, and in full disclosure one of my sites uses a publicly available CSS layout, and another uses a skin I have permission to use. I don’t think I’ve design my own site in quite sometime. It’s not my strong point, but unfortunately, I can’t afford a real designer, nor do I want one.

The other point that you just slightly touched on is why would someone want a site to look exactly like another one anyway?

It is exceptionally easy to take any page on the internet and either download the css and html code or re-code it yourself to look 100% exactly the same again but the point has to be WHY?

If you make a site that looks exactly the same as another then you will probably only succeed in getting on a lot of people’s nerves, perhaps getting some legal action taken against you (if you use any copyrighted materials from the original site) and the main most important factor is that people will just think that it is the original site. When they find out that it isn’t they will probably just navigate away immediately as they will just think that it is some kind of fraudulent site or something.

Whether or not you like the ExpressionEngine.com site design or not is totally irrelevant. I think what is more relevant is the fact that it is exceptionally well known due to the fact of who designed it and taking someone’s design who is that well-known on the internet can never ever be a good thing to do 😉

Just my two penneths worth though.

Best wishes,

Mark

Well, I don’t see anything wrong with saying you want a site “like” this one, so it might just be a matter of semantics.

Ah, the importance of semantics 😊 All kidding aside, being inspired by design is one thing, but a “clone”, well, that’s quite likely something more.

If only there were ways to view the code, CSS, and scripts, or maybe even download all the files.

Yes, if only…

Ingmar,

I know you know I was mostly joking with my comment about grabbing someone else’s code, but this does seem like the sadest part of that post to me. Why pay someone to steal something you can steal yourself? Honestly, do thieves have no ambition these days?

And as far as calling it a “clone,” what I was trying to point out was that it was a one line proposal. If he’d written “inspired by” instead, no one would have issue.

And like Mark pointed out, why would you want it? I mean it’s fine for the EE folks, and serves their purpose, but I can’t imagine why someone else would want it.

Now, if we were talking about a clone of Liv Tyler….

Most people would see it and not immediately know it’s a clone of the EE site. I’ve seen ripoffs before that were translated to vastly different markets, where you’d assume 99% of the people going to the ripoff would have never seen the first one.

I’ve been trying to pick up my first client using a similar site to the one linked above. About 20% of the job offers are for clones of other sites. For the record, I’ve never replied to those. It seems that these freelance web sites have a lot of offers for cloning and the non-clone offers are all paying incredibly low rates.

Still looking for work, but I do have ethics and will not take on dodgy work or do pron sites. due to the low rates and the high number of “dodgy” job offers there, I still haven’t found my first client.

I think it’s spelled porn. And just guessing, but if you’re still looking for your first client, you won’t be getting offers from any porn sites.

I often admire porn sites for how they push the envelope for web design. Now, I’m not evaluating them on being standards compliant or anything here, but their layouts, use of CSS, and user interface are usually cutting edge.

On the internet, porn really does drive innovation.

Webcams, interactive chats, ecommerce, and dynamic sites all hit the porn side first. Of course, now social media sites and such are also pushing the envelope as well, but I am almost willing to bet the next cool internet thing will be created by a company that sells pictures of naked women.

Wow, this post is like my uncle claiming to only read Playboy for the “articles.” I only look at porn sites for inspiration. Ha!

p.s. I am really surprised the blacklist let this post go through, since I’ve had much more “innocent posts” blocked for mentioning a drug name or using the letter that comes before Y three times in a row (I was using it as a variable honest).

On the internet, porn really does drive innovation.

indeed - just at it did in the print industry with colour (and apparently the multi ply tissue industry, so I am told.)

—————————————————————
Dear Santa (the real one not Jason)
I would like a clone of expressionengine.com please. These are the bits I would like cloning.

The amount of traffic the site gets.
The loyal, near fanatical, user base (but not the stalkers please).
The reputation and media coverage.
A suite of world class products to sell.
A completely dedicated staff who understand the brand and whole shabang that is…
The potential (I’d like a bucket of this please)
but not the design - it’s nice but I will do something myself.
—————————————————————

You can copy a site design but that’s scratching the surface.

Our site’s design is routinely stolen. What’s sad is that people really think they can still get away with it.

Dear Santa (the real one not Jason)
I would like a clone of expressionengine.com please. These are the bits I would like cloning.

The amount of traffic the site gets.
The loyal, near fanatical, user base (but not the stalkers please).
The reputation and media coverage.
A suite of world class products to sell.
A completely dedicated staff who understand the brand and whole shabang that is…
The potential (I’d like a bucket of this please)
but not the design - it’s nice but I will do something myself.
—————————————————————

You can copy a site design but that’s scratching the surface.

Thanks for the kind words, Simon.

Our site’s design is routinely stolen. What’s sad is that people really think they can still get away with it.

Well, they would have if it hadn’t been for those lousy kids!

Well, they would have if it hadn’t been for those lousy kids!

Anyone for a Scooby Snack?

Scooby Dooby Doo! 😉

In the early days of Salon, we did a complete redesign roughly once a year (with us art directors writing every line of HTML—those were the days). And after weeks of pouring love and labor into it, we’d see clones within hours of launching a redesign. People are amazing.

But look at the list of jobs in the left column of that site—it does seem to be the place to go if you want to clone someone else’s site.