This morning when I looked at tricider’s Twitter account, I stumbled over a russian message mentioning tricider. That’s nothing too unusual as tricider spreads around the world and there are always messages in Japanese, Dutch, Spanish and languages even Google Translate can’t handle. What struck me was the domain that the question was pointing to: tricider.ru. That’s clearly not ours!

tricider is almost one year old. It’s a free service for brainstorming and decision making online. It has taken us much effort to get it from the very first idea to where it is today. It was hard work and took many, many small steps and feedback loops with users and fans. However, that does not hinder anyone from copying just the finished product. Here are some screenshots for you to see:

One of the craziest things is how the product video has been copied. They even took the same music. Not only the same song (which we paid for), but I recut it as well to fit what is happening and it is excatly the same!

Original

Copy

We know there is a big discussion about ethics and morals of copycats. Many people have argued for and against cloning. Let me just tell you: When it happens to you, you really feel like being robbed. It´s like you have been cooking dinner for your friends for hours and when you turn around someone else is already sitting at the table eating your dessert.

Taking the same name is the biggest slap in the face. The name, the brand is so personal. It’s odd enough when two people in a room wear the same sweater, but believe me, this is worse. “Hey, is this your twin-brother?” “No, he is just a clone…” Even the Samwers don’t do that.

Who is behind that? We do not know yet for sure. The domain has been registered in St. Petersburg, Russia and tehre is a guy running a fanpage on the russian clone of facebook. We are trying to get in contact. If you have any hints or suggestions on how to proceed, please contact us at mail@tricider.com.

So many questions are now turning in our heads: How will it influence us? How is our reputation being hurt, especially by the low quality of the design and all the dead options on the page? Should we do anything about it? Can we actually do anything about it? Unfortunately, we are not Microsoft or Facebook with 2000 lawyers and millions of silly patents.

I guess, now we are in the position to lead by innovation. And somehow that is something that we like. Since the beginning, we tried to listen to our users and fans and built a product that really helped. Now – more than ever – we rely on the support and feedback by our fans and users.

If you would like to support us, please share this post or become a tricider supporter on our tricider fanpage.

UPDATE April 27, 2012

We managed to get in contact with the probable owner of the russian clone via ICQ and he told us direct and straightforward, that he got the idea for the website from tricider.com.

Look at the screenshot from this chat:

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

Just a few minutes ago, we made the biggest improvement to tricider since launching. A new design and many new features. Read about the most important changes or just see for yourself.

Cleaner design – easier handling

At the end of the day, making a tool easier and more beautiful is the same thing. We decided that for some areas, like the administration box, it was time for evolution!

New feature: Agree with an argument

One of the great things of brainstorming with tricider is the discussion right next to every idea. Instead of posting arguments redundantly, you can now agree with arguments.

New feature: Interesting Insights