This has come up before now and again, and I'm _certain_ that I'm not the
only one that this has happened to, but I really dislike it when people
log into your mud for the _first_ time and immediately ask if the source
code is available. They don't even spend _any_ time looking about.
This (in my opinion) is pretty damned inconsiderate. If you like a mud
a lot, and the owners/imps are not announcing that their source code is
publically available _do not_ ask them for a copy of it. It is their
game. There's a pretty damned good chance that they won't share their
code that easily. Especially not with someone that has just over a minute
of online time.
If you really like some of the features that they have, spend some time
playing the game, toy around with stuff, and ask about how the feature
works, and what they have to take into account and so forth. And if you
do that, by all means ask _very_ nicely. And don't start whining if they
won't tell you all of the gorey details. Most mud imps (me included) are
happy to talk about how they did things, but aren't interested in sharing
their code with you.
What does this all mean? Don't log into muds and ask for source code.
Ever. If you are working on your own mud or are looking to create one,
then ask nicely about some features. Not for source, but for the ideas
behind, and how they did things. But don't ask more than once. Don't
whine if they aren't interested in helping out. And above all, don't
offer money to buy the source code from them.
If they aren't interested in helping you, jot down the ideas that _you_
see from what they've done, and reimplement the command, the way that
_you_ think that it should be done.
And that is my tirade for the day,
Ae.
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