Citing Sources in Stage-Building

Below, copied from its place on the old site, is a little point of etiquette for everyone who uses SOR Maker, with some editing and additional info attached.

While map stages and their components have been provided across the internet, including this forum's old site and other places such as vgmaps.com, for our use in creating our mods, some users will have taken the time to rip original stages from ROMs in order to make their own mods more unique. Of course, not everyone will have been able to do so due to time constraints or other commitments in life, or they may not have the knowledge, skill or tools to rip said stages for themselves (though ideally we would all have the time and skills to rip stages for ourselves); so as a consequence, these users may wind up borrowing stage maps or scenes from other users' mods to spruce up their own mods.

With this under consideration, below are listed a few suggested guidelines to avoid stepping on other mod-builders' toes when constructing your own mods. If you feel you need to borrow stage maps or scenes from others' mods, please adhere to the following:

(1) Ask the other users' permission first, even if they don't respond right away or at all. This is only common courtesy. If you do ask, at least they'll have the message in their inbox so they can't say you didn't.

(2) Where you have used a stage map from another person's mod (as opposed to downloading it somewhere else on the web), give credit to the other mod-creator. You can do this either in the credits of your own mod, or in the thread where you post the download link for your mod. This is especially applicable if they haven't given a speedy response to Point #1 above.

(3) This one should really be obvious: Resist the temptation to take the plot or stage outline (other than the map itself) of another user's mod and pass it off as your own. This is stealing and will not be appreciated.

(4) If you can't remember the name of the original map-ripper (whether at vgmaps.com or similar sites, or or borrowing from another user's mod), at least include a note within the files of your mod or in your mod's credits that you are not the one who did the ripping first. Of course, you should try your best to get the name of the person you want to credit, but if this isn't possible, make sure to at least give a disclaimer that you're not the one to whom the credit should go (e.g. "These scenes/maps were not originally ripped by me.").

Other recommendations may be submitted for addition to this list at any time.