Like many here on this subreddit, I have been strongly influenced by the Hermits. I learned the concept of texturizing builds, a great deal about terraforming, and building 101 from YouTube videos alongside practice and experimentation. Like many Hermitcraft fans, I'm sure, I have aspirations to create content, but sometimes I wonder about the norms for credit giving and what constitutes being influenced by versus copying, or what institutes an original idea containing stylistic elements coined by others yet generalized so much as to be the cultural standard versus an unoriginal idea spun in a new way. I don't think the lines are always so clear.

As an example, I was creating a custom beach today in my Minecraft world and I found myself frustrated at the limitations to mixing sand with sandstone variants (mainly that the tops of the variants all have the smooth texture). I remember Xisuma using endstone and even birch slabs, and I started trying that out. It got me wondering, what if I used that idea someday in my Let's Play? Would it be plagiarism, or is block variation fair game?

I have no issue crediting Xisuma or anyone else, as I would never want to present someone elses' idea as my own. But I still think it's worth discussing when that is and isn't necessary, as if you are CONSTANTLY citing every single influence, you might run the risk of being accused of namedropping just to boost your channel through association.

What do you think the boundaries are for originality, influence, and credit? How would you navigate this? My obsessive compulsive disorder makes me overthink these sort of things, so it would help to see others' standards.

NOTE: The purpose of this post is NOT to promote my future channel. I have purposefully not mentioned the future channel name for this reason. Rather, it is to start a discussion on a topic that I'm sure other Hermitcraft fans have pondered as well, considering the server's influence among those who make content or play on multiplayer servers. While I understand if this thread gets taken down, I hope it doesn't, as I feel it's a worthwhile discussion.