Plagiarism, Lies, False Advertising & Outsourcing - Ripe

Link the current Sythe account: Ripe

Verifying UID: Discord 8pBtPW54CH

Which violation you are reporting the user for: Plagiarism / False Advertising

Why you think they're violating Sythe rules:

Kale is actively advertising discord bots that are produced by Hydra-Tech/Titanite as his own to promote sales in his server.

Evidence 1) 11th June - Video Link
This was our first interaction where we discovered Ripe advertising Titanite's bots as his own (Initially there was no indication they were outsourced - though after some digging one of the Devs mentions another developer "probably made for him").

• 9 Seconds in shows the Google sheets of one of Titanite's bots
  
• 19 Seconds in Kale references the Sythe Vouch bot, also developed by Titanite

Evidence 2) 8th July - Video Link
After some digging, he admits that some of those bots he showed do not belong to him, and are done by a contractor (I assume he's referring to Titanite given that 2 of the 3 bots shown belong to him (Dropdown Menu prices + Sythe Vouch bot). He does not have permission from Titanite to resell his discord bots or any sort of contractor agreement.

Evidence 3) 8th July - Video Link (timestamped)
We purchased the 'Sythe Vouch Bot' on an alt for $80, before making payment we specifically asked who hosts the bot, to which Kale replied "us" (indicating they did). Just 10 minutes after payment was made, Kale contacted Titanite to order his Sythe Vouch Bot for a customer (imgur.com), claiming to be a middleman on this transaction and making a small profit.

I'm not sure why Kale thinks it's reasonable to advertise Titanite's bots in his own Discord bot development server to get himself sales, or to try and re-sell Titanite's bots for a profit without his permission.

 

I can only say, that this is incorrect/false information. I have never tried to advertise, or sell any bots that were not in the process of us making, or ok'd by another dev. I have talked to Unicorn and came to an agreement with them about selling their discord bots until mine are done, the only bot I have sold that was ''outsourced'' was the one in question, and Titanite knew that it was outsourced before he did it, and agreed to do it anyways. therefore, i think that counts as him agreeing for me to sell an ''outsourced'' bot. I did not in any way, shape, or form intend or mean to offend anybody, step on anybodys toes, or anger/upset anyone. My dev was working on the same bot, the customer(which apparently is @Clax 's ALT discord, that the UID matching it is also in question of scamming somebody(seperate topic), but I was under the impression that the customer did not want to wait any longer to recieve the bot, so I outsourced it to @Titanite. I even paid him $10 extra ($20 extra from what I paid for the same bot from him) assuming because he knew that it was outsourced and didn't want me to make much if anything off of it. Which is fine, If I was actively trying to outsource bots, and sell them as my own, when that same customer requested a dropdown menu bot (like the one posted above) on june 11th or whatever it was. I would have just did the same thing that I did with the sythe vouch bot? as its from the same person.. I had 0 ill intentions, was more trying to please the customer, help Titanite out with a sale, but not give up the customer completely to another provider(which I dont think is unfair or unreasonable). I have and will post all the screenshot evidence and proof that he knew it was outsourced and still agreed to sell it.

 

and again, @Titanite @Clax, was in no way, shape, or form, trying to offend, or angry anybody at all. was trying to help a customer, in hopes that he becomes a repeat customer, and help titanite out in the same sense. We are actively building our bots, but they do take time, and I probably launched a little earlier than I should have. Once you start pouring money into something, you typically want to see a ROI, so by asking Titanite to do the bot, and him agreeing, knowing that it was an outsource where I was making a little commission, I dont think that this report is very viable. The bots that I did ''Advertise" I didnt really advertise, more showcased what ours was going to look like.. again, the customer asked for a variety of bots a month ago. If i was actively trying to claim that their stuff was mine as well, I would have just done the same thing a month ago. Never any ill intentions on my end, and I apologize if that's how it seems/feels/looks. Truly hope that we can all move past this, and this report doesn't bring ill/bad rep on my name. I have done plenty of business with a lot of people thru sythe, and hope that this relationship can continue.

 

- The alt account in question, UID 716046382737260555, is linked to this report The Beast (discord = Limitless). This is shown in the original post (Evidence 1 & 3). This account belongs to @Titanite, the video is from his point of view and was sent to me so I could use it in this violation report. As this is unrelated to me I'll make no further comment and @Titanite can respond himself.

- You mention that @Titanite was aware and knew about this, however, that's not really the case, you just assumed it was okay, this is evident in your chatlogs with @Titanite. You approached @Titanite beforehand indicating you may need his vouch bot, and his initial reply was that you had already purchased this to which yes, you followed up with "not for me". @Titanite told you to tell the customer to make a ticket with us, this was at 11:48am (timestamp from your videos provided above), yet you proceeded to continue to talk to the customer in your own ticket, and at 11:59am sent your LTC address to be paid, finally at 12:16pm you followed up with @Titanite and "He paid me for it lol, if you wanna do it I'll send you the $60 i guess i'm just MMing for him.. Well plus a little profit".

Some takeaway points:

1. Nothing was agreed upon with Titanite beforehand
2. You were showcasing Titanite's/Hydra Techs' products (Vouch bots and drop-down menus) in your own server on more than 1 occasion, almost a month apart, you didn't make it clear these were not your products until pressed about it
3. You informed the customer you would be hosting the bot but approached Titanite to create & host it
4. The only reason Titanite later completed the job was to recoup most of the money he had already sent you whilst pitching to be a customer on his alt account, as he didn't want to be $80 out of pocket, otherwise, you would've never been able to deliver this product
5. Above you mention you don't believe this report is "very viable", however in our direct messages you acknowledge that you understand where I'm coming from ("I do understand where you are coming from, and is just unfortunate for me I guess")
   
   

 

1 - obviously it was agreed on, as showed in my screenshots, timestamps don't really matter on that one.. he agreed to do it with me making commission.

2- I was showcasing my products to come, as you can see, I already have a vouch bot now (just wasn't finished at time of purchase)

3 - yes, did say ''us'' when asked who is going to host it, yes, asked titanite, and again, he agreed to "create and host" it, again with me making a profit, meaning outsourced.

4 - I mean, he probably shouldn't have even tried to sabotage somebody, I don't understand the gain for you guys.. trying to be shady people to ''eliminate competition"? doesn't make much sense to me.

5 - Yes, I said I do understand where you are coming from in response to you saying ''I mean, I just don't really understand why you would advertise Titanite's work w/o his permission? Would you not find it strange if Hydra Tech started showcasing your bots in our server, then outsourcing the sales to you w/o any real prior knowledge of it?"


again, screenshots and videos above is pretty clear that he had prior knowledge..

Better question here, is why you are having a developer work for you that is clearly into shady business practices. as you can see on the report above, that if in fact, that is his alt discord, its been reported and I think even DNT'd/TWC'd yet you are promoting his work and what not. doesn't make much sense to me as to why you'd try to sabotage me.

 

Regarding the alt account:

Given that I am a developer who hosts many individual bots for many servers, I found myself quickly running out of space in discords dev portal for new applications (bots). As a result I asked a few people if they had any discord accounts spare so that I may continue to expand my customer base by hosting more applications. I unfortunately do not have any proof regarding obtaining this account as my main Discord account was nuked along with my RWT server on Feb 19th 2023. I should have executed more diligence when obtaining said account by checking the UID here on Sythe.



I just want to touch on a few points noticed while reading the dialogue in the rest of this report.

Please provide a formal contract agreed upon for outsourcing.

Paying someone extra doesn't indicate someone knowing, or being willing to give extra consent during a sale, there was no formal contract made with me nor with Hydra Tech.

Contractual agreements are not based on assumptions, they are based on black and white agreements from both parties.

If you are unable to meet the request that a customer is asking for, you should know your current limits. reselling someone else's work that you don’t have an agreement with and not giving credit is not the alternative.

As a seller you have a duty to make sure that all products are reliably cited, and information is made transparent to your customer.

This would be defined as false advertising and plagiarism as you are showcasing someone else’s work and intending to deliver something completely different. Proof of concept is used as PROOF OF CONCEPT, not "look what we might be able to make, but not sure yet" concept.

I can see that you have now finished the development of this bot, and it is completely different to how it was showcased.

Trying to make a customer a repeat customer over a product that you do not currently have available and claiming to "help" me is just gas lighting and a way for you to try and spin this report in a "positive" light. You weren’t looking to help anyone but yourself.

Also, on the point of “wanted a repeat customer”

How did you plan to provide future support to the code you don’t have direct access too and are presumed to be hosting yourself?

Were you intending to continue a charade or disillusion that we have a contractual agreement? You must keep in mind that I do reserve the right to decline work if my schedule can’t handle more workload. What would you do if that were the case? I ask because as you know I have a busy schedule between real world work, my children/home life, and my online workload, how would you then go to explain to the customer potential timeline delays that you have no control or a deeper insight on with my schedule? This shows a direct lack of care for your customer in any capacity of transparency or “good faith”.

Then maybe you shouldn't launch and try to crawl through the market with other peoples products, regardless of how much you have put in for startup, you weren’t in a place to start producing your own orders/bots. seeing an ROI off the backs of a developer who is unbeknownst to what you're true actions or intentions are is not an acceptable form of business. you started bumping your discord bot threads `Jun 12, 2023 at 12:53 PM` at this point you had NO discord bots ready to sell and no one actively taking custom orders as they were busy with active plug-in side of server.

Regardless of business you have done in the past, that doesn't change the current actions at hand filled with devious and misleading information and/or intentions, not just to your customers, but to the people whos work you are profiting from.

 

https://i.imgur.com/OKQnx7J.png

 

looks alot like you knew, and agreed to doing it. idk what else you want me to say

 

if there was no agreement in black and white, when I said ''not for me" and "plus a little commission", why'd you accept to do it?

 

Ripe,

Timestamps are relevant, it shows that Titanite had instructed you to have the user make a ticket with us before you asked the customer for payment.
You did not make it clear to the customer the bot was outsourced and/or not yours until after payment was made when Titanite initially claimed to be unable to deliver the product.
This isn't about sabotage or eliminating competition, you're not competition (lol), it's about principle. As I mentioned in our discord messages we noticed this on the 11th of June, we decided to give you the benefit of the doubt that this was a one-time thing, but it wasn't because we found you doing it again nearly a month later.
Regarding the alt discord account in question, Titanite's response is above, additionally, if you take a moment to review the report in a little closer detail, you'll notice that proof of UID was never submitted, the report was marked as resolved with precautionary DNTs applied.

I already covered this point above - "The only reason Titanite later completed the job was to recoup most of the money he had already sent you whilst pitching to be a customer on his alt account, as he didn't want to be $80 out of pocket, otherwise, you would've never been able to deliver this product"

It's clear you don't want to admit you're at fault here, and are just recycling questions, all of which could be answered if you took some time to properly read what both myself and Titanite have posted above.
For the benefit of the Sythe mod(s) that have to handle this (God I feel for you, sorry!) I'll conclude my responses here unless anything further is required of me.

Enjoy your weekend, Ripe.

 

thoughts? comments? its clear we aren't getting anywhere.