u/nicolaskion

TL;DR: I recently redesigned the landing pages of my projects. Shortly afterwards, another developer publicly accused me of copying his website and using his assets. I don't believe those accusations are true, and since the discussion happened publicly, I feel it's only fair to make a public statement as well.

I never thought I'd have to write a post like this. I usually stay out of drama and just enjoy building tools for the EVE community. But being publicly accused of plagiarism isn't something I feel comfortable ignoring.

A few days ago I gave the landing pages of my projects a visual overhaul with a more polished sci-fi look. Today I was approached on Discord by another developer who claimed that I had copied his website.

The accusations included claims that I had copied his:

amber color palette,
fonts,
HUD-style brackets,
glowing LED effects and animations,
overall visual style,
and even that I was using his assets.

My response was pretty straightforward:

I had never seen his website before that day.
My projects are open source, so the entire redesign process is visible in the Git history.
We don't use the same fonts.
We don't use the same color palette (my redesign uses orange, not amber).
The layouts and page structures are different.
The projects solve completely different problems.
Sci-fi HUD elements, glowing borders, and warm accent colors are common design patterns. They're not unique to either of our projects.

There was some back and forth after that. Rather than selectively quoting parts of the conversation, I've decided to leave it available in my Wormhole Systems Discord in the interest of transparency. Anyone who wants to can read the entire exchange and judge it for themselves.

What disappointed me wasn't that someone thought the designs looked somewhat similar. Design is subjective, and it's perfectly fine to have that opinion. What disappointed me was being publicly accused of plagiarism and using someone else's assets without first checking the facts or simply reaching out privately.

As independent developers, our reputations matter. Plagiarism is a serious accusation, and I think it should only be made when there's actual evidence behind it.

At the end of the day, both websites are public. My Git history is public. The Discord conversation is available in full. I encourage everyone to look at all of it, consider both sides, and come to their own conclusions.

I don't have any interest in turning this into ongoing developer drama. I just felt that public accusations deserved a public response, and with that said, I'd like to move on and get back to building tools for the EVE community.

TLDR: I posted here about nine months ago about a new wormhole mapper. It's grown a fair bit since, so here's a quick update. Biggest additions: a fully customizable panel layout you can share with your corp, Discord webhook alerts, proper access control (public view-only maps, temporary access that expires, separate read/write levels), and threat analysis that color-codes the map by where the PvP actually is. Still free, still just sign in with EVE, nothing to install: https://wormhole.systems

Hey all,

Nine months ago I shared the first version of wormhole.systems here. A bunch of you signed up and gave feedback, and most of what's new came out of that. It's still beta and bugs still happen, but my corp lives in it daily now and so do a lot of other groups, so I figured an update was overdue. I'll keep it short.

Customizable layout: The map is panels on a grid (the map itself, signatures, characters, killmails, routing, threat analysis, and more). Drag them around, resize them, hide the ones you don't use. It saves a separate layout per screen size, and you can copy your whole layout to a string and hand it to a corpmate so everyone runs the same setup. This one ended up being my favorite, it makes the thing feel like yours.

Discord webhooks: The map can ping your Discord when a system you're looking for comes into range, and you can set up killmail alerts filtered by ship type with role pings. Proximity intel without anyone sitting and staring at a window.

Access control: This got properly powerful. You can make a map fully public so anyone can view it without even registering, which is great for sharing a chain with an ally for one op. You can grant temporary access that expires after a set time. And there are separate read and write levels, so a viewer can read the chain but can't edit it or see where your fleet is, while members can map and managers can hand out access. You grant any of it to a single character, a corp, or a whole alliance.

Threat analysis: This basically looks at who's been active in each wormhole recently and colors the map accordingly. You get a ring on each system showing how hot it is, plus the top corps and alliances operating there. So if you're out looking for a fight, you can glance at the chain and see which holes are actually worth poking instead of probing blind.

There's other stuff too (live killmails from your chain, EVE Scout routing, home and rally points, set-waypoint-in-game, an ignore list, a full docs section), but those four are the big ones since last time.

Still free, you just sign in with EVE, and the scopes are all optional. Give it a go: https://wormhole.systems

And it's fully open source. You can self-host your own private instance if you'd rather keep your intel in-house:

Mapper: https://github.com/WormholeSystems/WormholeSystems
Docker containers (for self-hosting): https://github.com/WormholeSystems/wormholesystems-containers

Would love feedback, especially the "this is annoying" kind. There's a Discord linked on the site if you'd rather chat there.

____________________________

Full feature list:

Map as you fly: tracks your location and logs the chain as you jump
Live shared map: everyone sees scans, jumps and status changes instantly
Signature tracking: paste straight from the in-game scanner, shows a diff before saving
Auto-generated bookmarks: consistent names where the name is the route to the hole
Customizable layout: drag, resize and hide panels; save per screen size; share your layout
Discord webhooks: gate-range proximity alerts and filtered killmail pings
Access control: public view-only maps, expiring temporary access, separate read/write levels, per character / corp / alliance
Threat analysis: color-codes the map by recent PvP activity and shows the top groups in each system
Live killmails: real-time feed for your chain from zKillboard, filterable by J/k-space
Smart routing: shortest or safest paths, mass and lifetime filters, optional EVE Scout (Thera/Turnur)
Set waypoints in-game: push a route to your autopilot, including all alts at once
Home & rally points: shared markers with a live route everyone sees
Character tracking: see who's online, where, and in what ship
System intel: aliases, occupier notes, status colors, ignore list, pinning
Raidable skyhooks, ship history and an audit log
Full in-app documentation
Free, ESI-secure, nothing to install
Fully open source and self-hostable

Clarification regarding recent plagiarism accusations

wormhole.systems got a lot bigger since I last posted