Q: okay no but what is stealing code though

A: i'm not quite sure, actually

i don't think you can steal code, you know? code works the same way, it's not like a creative process that's uniquely you, like art for example. paragraph tags and css elements aren't uniquely personal to you — the way you color them and lay them out are; which is just back to the artistic process of the whole thing.

it's a different thing when you rip someone's website off and upload as-is, but if you're just doing a ctrl + u and poking around the source code in order to copy some code you can modify to be your own, that's genuinely just a bona fide way of learning how code works and sharing knowledge! and i hate people who gatekeep knowledge!

i literally thought this was common sense and i never thought i'd be typing this out, but in response to all the people who feel the need to include a very specific "do not copy my code" on their websites —

i, catskulls, officially grant any webmaster a free pass to poke around my site's source code* and nick anything they want for their own site or reuse, repurpose and recycle any and all elements coded by yours truly, on the condition that you at least try to make it your own, haha.

god knows i've got some elements nicked off some clever folks! but in a lot of cases, you can't even distinguish they're not mine — i've gotten creative with them, just using them as a headstart when i was a beginner!!! we need to stop bullying people who use templates we were literally all beginners at some point

in conclusion: this is the fucking internet people!!!!! your source code is literally there for anyone to see and html/css work the same for anyone!!!! you CANNOT police this shit be so fucking for real!!!!!!!!

*for the record, i don't claim any of my code is good. it is pretty amateur and inoptimized — it's like if they let yanderedev develop a website. but like, if you really wanna check out how i did something, go ahead??? i guarantee nothing though