Last year my friends and I started a site called stinkfactor.com
, where we dared eachother to do stupid things. Up until today, no one has tried to rip off the idea. I’d like to think it’s because we constructed the site well, and have tried to have involvment from our readers. The concept of the site alone is pretty unique, and copies of that concept are pretty easy to spot.
Erik has a good write up on how we have discovered our first rip off. I suggest you read it.
Maxim magazine copied our idea, without the slightest bit of credit. It’s obvious they’ve seen stinkfactor as the format is pretty similar despite the differences in the look of the site. Heck, they have their own “Cinnamon Challenge”.
I’m thinking of drumming up support from the stinkfactor viewers, but also from the blogging community to talk about this ripoff, enough so that Maxim says something about it. Stinkfactor owes it’s initial success to the blogging communities, and I’d bet there would be those out there willing to drop the editor a note mentioning that they snaked us.
I’ll post an email address soon.