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I'm gonna try and stay civil here. But I really don't think the people who made this decision really understand how the internet works. I'm going to point out a few problems.
First, you realize that wowmatrix is going to work around this. "Oh, but we found a really *good* way to keep it out!!!" Tell that to the DVD-CCA, Apple, Stardock, and literally thousands of other people who "outsmarted the hackers". The hackers always find a way. They built a simple, elegant user interface, something that's really *hard* to do. You think they can't work around whatever you've put into place? You're very full of yourself if you think they can't.
Second, I'm now relegated to updating my addons by hand. So I'm going to be using *more* bandwidth than just leeching them down with wowmatrix. Right now I just grab the addons, which are generally pretty small files. Some of the web pages on your site, with graphics, comments and so on, are bigger than the addons I'd be downloading. And, since I use Firefox and Adblock Plus, you'll get no additional ad revenue, but at least I'll be using more bandwidth. Net loss there.
Why do I use AdBlock? Well, it's not really to block ads, it's to block all the stuff that comes with ads. You know, the malware that auto-installs with a zero-day exploit to put a keylogger on my system, that kind of thing.
Third, how much time did you spend on this instead of updating your addon manager that doesn't work right? You realize that most of us use WoWmatrix because it's easy, fast, and clean? Which is basically the story of the entire Internet in a nutshell. Basically Wowmatrix is napster. And you're the RIAA. Grats.
I completly understand how much it costs to run a site like this. And I appreciate what you're trying to do with this change. I just think you've gone about it completely backwards. The actions you've taken aren't going to work, they aren't going to increase ad revenue from me anyway, and really all they do is provide annoyance to me and more bandwidth costs to you.
So what's the answer? Build a tool that's light and easy but put your own ads into it, and you'll find success. Build up a program and take donations for a "premium" version for $20 a year and trade on your name, the fact that you've been around a long time and you're not going anywhere. License it, open your accounting so the mod authors don't think you're making money off their hard work (because you'll probably just break even) and have a happy community.
Down the path you're on lies only frustration and misery for you and the people who you want to use your site.
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