WoWInterface and Curse working together to help protect authors and other site-users

[Zirco]

Originally Posted by WiredLain What WoWI/Curse site do you use that requires you to pay before you can download an addon? I'll make sure to stay well away from it if there is such a site.

The "cost" of using WoWI/Curse is having ads displayed to me. That's what I "pay" and that's how WoWI/Curse gets compensated for the costs they incur to run their sites.

[WiredLain]

Originally Posted by Zirco The "cost" of using WoWI/Curse is having ads displayed to me. That's what I "pay" and that's how WoWI/Curse gets compensated for the costs they incur to run their sites.

So if I were to use AdBlock I'd be stealing?

Originally Posted by bennykurns Wont this drop in bandwith be replaced by all the users migrating to the WoWUI program?

Nowhere near. WM is inefficient in the way it checks, and as I posted, I expect a good part of the drop in bandwidth will be people not bothering checking. even for people who go manual, you are less likely to check as often manually as you are with a simple three-click program.

[Zirco]

Originally Posted by WiredLain So if I were to use AdBlock I'd be stealing?

Well, read my post above (#165)

[Tuhljin]

Originally Posted by WiredLain So if I were to use AdBlock I'd be stealing?

Food for thought. (And no, I don't plan on following up. Arguing morality on the Internet is generally a wasted effort, and this topic is explosive enough without that tangent.)

[Republic]

Originally Posted by WiredLain So if I were to use AdBlock I'd be stealing?

No. A website user is no more obligated to view ads than a tv viewer is to sit and watch every commercial. Advertising agreements with website content are simply not written in this perspective. Period.

[Tekkub]

Originally Posted by Republic No. A website user is no more obligated to view ads than a tv viewer is to sit and watch every commercial. Advertising agreements with website content are simply not written in this perspective. Period.

There will always be a portion of your users that block ads, just as there will always be a portion that steal paid content. People that realize this and plan their stuff around the portion that WILL see the ads are the ones that do well. People that live in denial of this, or spend all their money fighting it are the ones that don't do so well. I love the excuse they tell people, "it keeps the honest people honest". Such a line of tauren****.

[Republic]

Originally Posted by Tekkub There will always be a portion of your users that block ads, just as there will always be a portion that steal paid content. People that realize this and plan their stuff around the portion that WILL see the ads are the ones that do well. People that live in denial of this, or spend all their money fighting it are the ones that don't do so well. I love the excuse they tell people, "it keeps the honest people honest". Such a line of tauren****.

The blocking of ads has nothing to do with sites serving ads, and thus being paid ad revenue. I'm not sure I follow your point.

ESPN still has ad revenue whether or not you and I get up for a snack when we see Billy Mays come on during timeouts of the Celtics/Cavaliers game. Know what I mean?

[Zirco]

Originally Posted by WiredLain So if I were to use AdBlock I'd be stealing?

WiredLain,
Just curious. How would you recommend that WowInterace and Curse generate revenue to pay their bills?

[Republic]

Originally Posted by Zirco WiredLain, Just curious. How would you recommend that WowInterace and Curse generate revenue to pay their bills?

How about running a very professional website which obviously has the community's best interests at the forefront? That gets people like ME to support them.

[Zirco]

Originally Posted by Republic How about running a very professional website which obviously has the community's best interests at the forefront? That gets people like ME to support them.

So in your case, you're willing to pay WowInterface directly.

I'm still curious how WiredLain would recommend that they generate revenue.

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by Zirco So in your case, you're willing to pay WowInterface directly.

I would. It would definitely be easier than giving it to Allakhazam just so I can log on add free over here. Alla was definitely useful when I played EQ. Not so much now that I don't.

[WiredLain]

Originally Posted by Republic How about running a very professional website which obviously has the community's best interests at the forefront? That gets people like ME to support them.

That obviously. I don't use AdBlocker, mostly out of laziness than belief that I have to see ads or else bad stuff will happen. So as WoWI is right now, the site is very fine, and in my opinion a lot better than curse. I want an updater too, because having a half-page rss-looking list that tells me "this and this was updated" is a lot more convenient that having to open 20 tabs to check each addon one by one. Obviously the "my favorites" feature here goes a long way towards that, and with a little tweaking (I'll go post it in the suggestion forum), would eliminate a third of what I used WM for: see in a short and concise way what may need to be updated. The second third is the same thing for curse, and the last third is what in my opinion the updaters do best: not having to manually extract and replace every addon/module folder archive by archive. Which gives me an other idea for a suggestion in fact.
Concerning ads on the future WoWI client: I don't have any problem with them either, as long as it's non-intrusive, like it is on the site.


Up till now, they only site I went out of my way to remove ads from is Facebook when they changed their layout a couple weeks ago, adding a whole column of promoting crappy facebook apps (that were otherwise blocked, to boot) mixed with ads and legitimate friend stuff, while the previous ones had ads separated and no crap-apps suggestions forced on me.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

Originally Posted by Zirco WiredLain, Just curious. How would you recommend that WowInterace and Curse generate revenue to pay their bills?

Im curious to know whether or not you fast forward through commercials when watching TV shows you've recorded.

[Zirco]

Originally Posted by Arcadian Del Sol Im curious to know whether or not you fast forward through commercials when watching TV shows you've recorded.

Sometimes I do. Perhaps that's wrong of me. I also pay a hefty monthly subscription fee for my TV so I'm not too worried about my television content providers going out of business.

I guess I just feel like Curse/WowInterface are pretty small businesses and all they ask of me is that I let them serve up ads on their web pages. Ignoring ads is a pretty tiny cost, IMO - certainly smaller than watching 8 minutes of television ads for every 30 minutes television show.

So, if you want to call me a hypocrite - have at it. But the question still stands: How do we expect Curse/WowInterface to generate revenue to pay their expenses?

[Stormlor]

I agree with both sides. As a Network Admin its actually both the faults of WOWI and Curse for allowing WOWM to come in.

1 ) You (WOWI for example) should of your systems being monitored closer. This shows that your Network Admins are lazy as hell. As soon as something came into your network and you did your research and found it came from WOWM you should of blocked no questions asked, no posts. Its their responsibility not yours because they found an exploit in your network.

2 ) What WOWM is doing is basically hacking into domain, sees and updated addon and then downloads it from the source to the user pain free, ad free. If you press criminal charges against them it would be a good idea as basically they did break the law by hacking into your site. Bandwidth has nothing to do with this. If you guys can't afford the bandwidth then thats your issue not WOWM.

3 ) WOWM did not use as much "resources" as other clients ex: Curse. I say "resources" because everything on a network that is used is a resource. That includes bandwidth, storage, memory, and processing power. The "fake" admins here are strongly suggest using another client like their own which does not work. I'm ok with updating via Curse Client or WOWI Manager, but if your going to provide something to your customer and your customers find it doesn't work, then that looks bad on you as bad business practices. I call the admins here "fake" because honestly they know this site is just a portal to other hosting sites. They have no idea how their network infrastructure actually runs because if they did they would of blocked the ports that were being used.

Lastly I think this is where some sites like WOWI are all about money, and not about the community. Your site has just as much data as other big sites. You guys should of taken the time to research what ports WOWM is using, and blocked them right away. No questions asked, put it in your SOP document and your good. This is why I say its your fault just as much as WOWM. You guys LET them exploit you, now all your customers are angry at you because of it. This is standard in most businesses. This is why you should of done this as soon as you heard about it. WOWM has been running for approx a year or so. Someone should of seen this then, not on April 14 when 3.1 comes and everybody are like wolves trying to get their addons updated.

[Tuhljin]

... You say you're a "Network Admin," Stormlor? ...

Anyway...

Originally Posted by Silenia I would. It would definitely be easier than giving it to Allakhazam just so I can log on add free over here. Alla was definitely useful when I played EQ. Not so much now that I don't.

What you're talking about is a premium service. I doubt WoWI would be half as popular as it is if most of its offerings were only for premium members.

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by Tuhljin ... You say you're a "Network Admin," Stormlor? ... Anyway... What you're talking about is a premium service. I doubt WoWI would be half as popular as it is if most of its offerings were only for premium members.

That's not what I meant My bad for not being clear. What I mean is, I would rather donate directly to WoWInterface rather than donating to Allakhazam. I don't use that site and would prefer the donation link be here rather than over there. Yes, I know it's all one in the same, but it's easier to do it from the site you visit rather than from a site that you don't.

[Spyan]

I would hope that WoWInterface and Curse would learn from this - build a better simple client.

I find it interesting that WowInterface says to use their updater and links to a page that has this at the top:

Please Note: This updater is being discontinued. We're allowing you to continue downloading this current version until the new one is ready, but please be aware that it may not work as well as could be hoped for.

Instead of spending so much effort trying to prevent WowMatrix from working, how about trying to build something that is so much better than WowMatrix.

You sound like the RIAA trying to sue 80 year old grandmothers.

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by Spyan You sound like the RIAA trying to sue 80 year old grandmothers.

I don't recall WoWI sueing anyone.

[Tuhljin]

Is it just me, or do all of the arguments made by WM-defenders here seem to boil down to "the ends justify the means?"