@Taco:
Why don't you google it, right now? - : "hiro mashima and eiichiro oda". A good researcher looks at all sources - and there they are. You might even want to check out those youtube videos. You want more? Go check out MS's "Oda vs. Mashima" article, there is loads of proof in the comments section. Next up, buddy, I never said this was some exclusive fact outside of Japan, let's not put words in my mouth. Either way, I'm not wasting time with this - it isn't the time or place to be talking about this either. This isn't me copping-out, rather. It's me saying I've had these discussions/debates before on completely neutral grounds and I'm not going to resurrect the zombie. This whole thing is pathetic in the first place and since this is an OP forum, there is clear double standards.
The fact that I have to prove something that is universally acclaimed outside of this forum to somebody who won't even take a few minutes to do his own research just to be apart of this community is ridiculous. Thanks to your childish tone, I'm not spending a minute more contributing to this off-topic discussion.
Here, just take this as a guideline:
APF is the source of information about anything Oda related to the English community, we have for example the official OP english translator for VIZ as a forum member, and several other people who basically accompany every single news that pops up in Japan about Oda and OP, and post it here to let us informed.
So, if you read or hear something about Oda that looks like it may be a rumor anywhere else, the good thing to do is to come here to check if there is any basis to it. If there really is, the news is very likely to have been posted here first and then spread on the internet, and you will probably find a topic dedicated to discussing it on the forum, where surely someone will have posted the Japanese source of the information already… If there isn't people already discussing it here and taking it as a fact, that probably means that it was just a rumor without any basis.
If you can't find the info here, you can simply ask if the information is real or not, and people will let you know.
What you can't expect is that the people who accompany daily what is published in Japan, and what the Japanese OP fan community is discussing, and who are usually the ones to bring us those kinds of information, will take seriously any english source who is stating something about Oda's personal life, but isn't basing it on some credible japanese source.
The coincidences between OP and FT aren't proof of existence of any kind of animosity between Oda and Mashima, it may indicate that Mashima's work takes some influence from Oda's (the same way that Oda takes after other mangakas), but nothing more. So until we see any credible japanese source saying something to the contrary, the conclusion is that this is just a rumor.