Is it ok to recreate tools based on their systems?

So recently I made DataStore+ and got called out for it being a “DataStore2” copy. And yes, it works similarly, but they also work differently in many ways. Mainly being the idea of it being more flexible than DS2 when needed to be.

It also allowed you to make your own system of session locking based on it. More on that later.

It’s supposed to be it’s a DataStoreService “replacement”, which keeps the backups and everything.

About the session locking thing, a lot of people would also remember ProfileService. Both of these modules are great in their own ways. But they have their downsides.

ProfileService doesn’t keep backups from what I know.

DS2 is just annoying to mess around, it’s tied to a player instance, it can be glitchy, and it’s not as maintained as ProfileService.

So I decided to take matters with my own hands about creating a mix of both. Using DS+, it allowed me to really make my own system on this. DS+ being my gateway to DataStores. And having all the caching on the main module, all the info, all the auto-saving, kicking, everything there. I suddenly really liked this wrapper and decided to continue with it, I fixed, improved some stuff, and it’s working now.

If I were to release this, I would wait. Just to add more features and make this better for everyone and not cause data loss for anyone using it.

My issue is releasing it too, it’s not an original idea, but it is a cool module. I just don’t know how I feel about releasing it. Should I? It’s based around the system of 2 other people, I don’t know about session locking and who came up with it, but still. I don’t wanna make this feel like an ad for any of these resources, I just don’t know if I should even release it.

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Nothing is holding you back from creating better systems that have similarities to other open-source systems. Though, if you are using/modifying the published systems then you’d need to check the license.

People have created similar tools for a while, if one is a better fit for your workflow or you favor it more than the other then that’s up to you. There isn’t a perfect system that’s why people make them better and more efficient.

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