stii.za.net » Blog Archive » Afrigator vs Regator

Afrigator vs Regator

Jul 04

So, by the looks of things we’ve (Afrigator) been somewhat, sort of “copied“. Honestly, I don’t mind it as much. In fact, I feel quite flattered! That’s to say if the Regator crew even knew of our existence. Lets be honest, a gator is what a gator does. Not sure, but it would be somewhat stupid to put a ~~fail~~ whale as a mascot when the word gator appears in the domain name.

The color scheme, well, gators live in swamps and swamps aren’t blue! Unless I’m completely color blind, that green looks nothing like our green. Just to prove the point here are our greens in good ol’ hex: #CDE855 #A7C520 and here are Regator’s: #95C564 #336324 The numbers are way off if you ask me!

Good for them that they’ve drummed up all three of the holy tech trinity to review them! (ReadWriteWeb, Techcrunch and Mashable) In all honesty, I’m a tad jealous of that… Then again, you have to keep in mind that they’re launching into the wild while we’re an African service. We all know that Africa is seen as the “Dark Continent” and often get overlooked by our bigger counterparts on a regular basis. Kudo’s to RRW / Marshall Kirkpatrick who not only did a piece on us, but also (if you can remember) acted as a judge at this year’s SA Blog Awards! We love ya RRW!!! (I’m an XL, should you feel like sending me a tshirt…)

As far as concept goes, I see it as totally different. Regator is more of a 9rules Network style service while Afrigator is a kind of Technorati like service, only more location based with a couple more bells and whistles. Vast difference there.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m NOT unappreciative of the support in the comments section of the holy trinity and on some blog posts**. Gosh, I’m actually quite dumbstruck by the passionate support. Thank you guys, I do appreciate it! I’m just trying to be realistic about it. I should probably be a bit more upset and protective about this issue, but then I’d lie. If we have been deliberately copied it just goes to show that Africa had a good idea someone else wanted. Not a bad thing at all! (Although, I do share Rafiq’s sentiments a little there…)

**Here is some more on this issue:
Regator Looks Mighty Familiar - Mike Stopforth
Regator.com steals our brand - coincidence? - Justin Hartman
Shocking: Regator rip off Afrigator - Nic Haralambous
Regator - Perfect example of how Africa gets used - Rafiq Phillips
Regator steals Afrigator’s brand - Mark Forrester

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18 Comments to "Afrigator vs Regator"

Regator - Perfect example of how Africa gets used | Web AddiCT(s); said: On 07/04/2008 at 4:43 pm
[...] sure stii has something to say too. Yip, he has Regator VS [...]
Stii said: On 07/04/2008 at 4:44 pm
Geez, you’re damn fast Rafiq!
rafiq said: On 07/04/2008 at 4:48 pm
Slow to finish, quick to start
Afrigator vs Regator | Available Domains - Industry leading domain name news said: On 07/04/2008 at 4:57 pm
[...] here to read the rest: Afrigator vs Regator africa, afrigator, ajax, available-domain-names, business, code-igniter, firefox, justin-hartman, [...]
Scott Lockhart said: On 07/04/2008 at 6:16 pm
Stii,

Thanks for your nice words. We had not heard of your site until this morning seeing the comments everywhere. You’ve got some great fans!

I understand how some might think ill from just seeing the comments but when you do get into the site it really is quite different.

It is honestly just a coincidence. You described exactly our thinking in putting the site together with the name, mascot and color choices, etc.

Cheers mate.
Richard Catto said: On 07/04/2008 at 6:39 pm
I just love everyone screaming “SUE!” at the top of their lungs.

Hahahahahaha!!!

Just another day of mania in the SA Blogosphere.
coda said: On 07/04/2008 at 9:45 pm
I gotta say, it has been quite an eye-opener to see how the Afrigator team reacted to the TC post in an individual capacity. It’s all pretty embarrassing really. Pity you couldn’t talk some sense into them beforehand.
Wogan May said: On 07/04/2008 at 10:37 pm
I have to admit that I thought the color scheme and gator were _way_ off Afrigator’s designs. Still, they managed to launch an entire service and reveal very little about themselves in the process, deliberately - that was the only fishy thing to me, but it seems now that they’re at least human.

At least we have an answer, now. Pursuit complete … I hope.
Stii said: On 07/04/2008 at 11:19 pm
@coda emotions sometimes get the better of people, which is understandable. I just hope people see my reasoning as level-headed rather than a lack of loyalty…

@Scott Dude, fully. No need for you to apologize or explain yourself at all! You’ve done a Stirling job. Keep up the good work!
Justin Hartman said: On 07/05/2008 at 12:08 am
Trust old Stii to counter the rest of the team

I’ve looked at Regator and got into the backend thanks to Scott and I’ve changed my tune on the matter. See my latest blog post for more.

@coda I’m not embarrassed dude and I have no reason to feel that way either. You may think it’s stupid to feel passionately about a brand you’ve created out of nothing but I don’t and will defend it.

I wasn’t the only one either and I was really impressed by the support of the local blogosphere in our product. It was awesome to see the passion for our product.
Mario Olckers said: On 07/05/2008 at 1:49 am
Phew, glad that worked out well, you should’ve gone into the diplomatic corps, Stii

These little blow-outs do well in establishing a presence and buzz and it is amazing to see the SA bloggerati coming out in defense of Afrigator

All in all, I think it was a case of morphic resonance or meaningful coicidence and Justin has been set at ease, so all is well
Was South Africa’s Afrigator Ripped off By the U.S. Regator? - Appfrica said: On 07/05/2008 at 2:08 am
[...] interface. Now, the African blogosphere is abuzz with allegations that South Africa’s own Afrigator was victim to a stealthy feature and brand clone. The accused is the newly launched, [...]
IP infringement and how to build a web app in four days...! | Mario Olckers said: On 07/05/2008 at 7:36 am
[...] operation to see that intentions were good. Stii, one of the Afrigator.com co-founders, also did a very diplomatic post and put a nice positive twist on the whole saga. var ecov = “sh”; [...]
Arthur said: On 07/05/2008 at 8:16 am
I appreciate this post - some common sense in the midst of the “Sue them!” mania.

A pity that that the entire Afrigator team did not issue a joint statement to the blogosphere and the tech world. Is internal communication an issue or is it simply a case of personal expression before corporate response?

As expressed in previous comments, it is great to see the response from the SA blogging community - proudly and defensively South African!
Nic Haralambous » Blog Archive » Shocking: Regator rip off Afrigator… or did they? said: On 07/05/2008 at 8:36 am
[...] And dip my head for a brief moment to show that I have learned my lesson and wont be jumping on bandwagons any longer (I hope). My closing words: Stii, you got it spot on yet again. [...]
Richard Catto said: On 07/05/2008 at 10:18 am
Over the past few days I’ve been having a closer look at Afrigator.

I started off by reading your blog post about importing my blog roll into Afrigator and that intrigued me so I went and tried that out.

Anyway, I’ve been playing around with it the last few days and I’ve discovered that it’s pretty good actually.

It has a lot more to offer than amatomu.

How many blogs do you aggregate now?
South African web trends recognised/copied! | iMod said: On 07/05/2008 at 11:59 am
[...] very much like Afrigator doesn’t it? or Amatomu for that matter. I’ve read a number of articles on Regator copying Afrigator and I have to say that’s it’s almost as obvious [...]
How Muti has successfully built a self-sustainable community. | Gen-Yasser said: On 07/07/2008 at 12:23 pm
[...] about the whole issue, with some alleging ” a brand robbery” while others “revoking” the whole story . What a paradox ! …. Anyways, whatever the case might have been, it [...]