iA Writer 7 manton.org
@manton that section is weird. Are they saying you can’t use the Authorship format in your apps? Isn’t the whole point of something like extending Markdown is that we all use the same format which benefits everyone?
@jhull My reading of it was don’t copy their UI exactly. But for this file format there’s probably only so many possible designs for the same idea.
I remember a few years ago* IA used the same vague + mildly threatening language for one of their other features: www.macdrifter.com/2014/01/on-p...
*(Well I thought it was a few years ago, but it looks like it was almost a decade ago!)
@manton We put our spec on GitHub so everyone can use our code, discuss it, and contribute to it. All we ask for is to not be lazy and just copy everything, 1:1, specifically do not copy the exact design 1:1. That's why we say "Don't clone." Is this really puzzling?
To your point "this is a very specific idea; what else could be done?" There always are 100s of ways to design and improve something, visually and functionally. You have enough experience to know that. We picked this design from a range of possibilities.
What exactly is the design? Fonts? Colors? That something is grey, something is black? How it changes all that based on what you do when? Everything together in the exact way it is done, it looks and reacts is the design. That response may be a bit puzzling if you dont want to hbderstand it. Or if you want to believe that we are evil people so you can copy everything 1:1 without feeling bad about it yourself. :-)
We have written a detailed post on how we understand copying and the creative process No need to speculate on interpretations of "vague mildly" whatever social media posts from 10 years ago. Heee's a run down:
When is a design interpretation not just a copy? As authors we can sort of tell when someone copies us. Some authors might be wrong or overly sensitive sometimes, but often it's clear and mostly, authors sort of know.
Now, there is one person that knows exactly. The copyist. When we copy we know if we're lazy or if we contributed.
This somewhat philosophical take on copy an creativity may be puzzlinga md it may even hurt the feelings of both the creative and the uncreative. It's not providing satisfaction or liberation.
It's not a legal ("you're wrong!) or moral ("you're bad!") take. It's an honest take. It says: "It's up to the copyist to be honest!" It's not black and white. And we took that exact same stance on using machine generated text. it's up to you and how honest you want to be with yourself.
As far as I can tell, it is one of the more honest takes on the subject I could find. Honest not just in the sense of being truthful, but also in the sense of honorship in creativity: Respect yourself in your work. Honor those from who you receive.
It's the exact same thought behind our take on using machine generated text. It's first of all up to you, the author, to decide how honest you want to be with yourself.