To Post or Not To Post

[Elderin]

I started using an addon something like five or six years ago and shortly the author quit supporting it (I think the last update was Jan, 2008) and it has been declared out of date or abandoned and no longer maintained. I have managed to keep it going for my personal use until a few patches ago. It broke pretty hard, but I was still able to keep the basic functionality limping. However, that was troublesome. So, I have totally overhauled it, enhanced it with new functionalities and have a new name for it. One of the enhancements is totally specific to the guild my main and most alts are in. I am looking to share it primarily with fellow guildees, however it should be usable (with the exception of that one area) by any guilded player. And, so, my question is, what is the policy for uploading and publishing it here on this site?

I am deliberately not mentioning the original name or primary function at this time because I do not want that issue to muddy the question. I will say that I see a similar addon currently being published (and looking at its docs could have easily been based on the same one), but, no offense intended, and like most developers, I like mine better While I have been a programmer by profession for 30 years, it has been a Lua and WoW addon teaching tool.

[Dridzt]

I don't see any problem with uploading it really, especially if it's a re-write as you say.

I'm not a site admin so this is just opinion on my understanding of the policy not policy itself.

The only possible issue might be with the addon name, but that should be trivial.
In other words I don't think you even need to ask, the moderators approving your upload will inform you if there's a problem with it.

On a sidenote I don't know what you mean by 'muddy the question' but the question is particularly useless and has imo a common-sense answer without specifics

[Vlad]

I found an addon I liked but wanted it to do things a bit differently, so I started and made my own from scratch based on said addon, gave it another name but mentioned in the description where I drew inspiration from, so in a way it also credits the other addon.

Talking about Honor Queue if you look at the pictures and compare you see they look similar, yet a bit different functionality wise. :P

Anyway, I don't think it will be a issue, especially since the original addon is so "old" now, if you feel so guilty just mention the addon in the description with a link and that should be enough tbh. It's not like you copied his sources, changed some lines and renamed it into your own addon, lol. :P

[Phanx]

I'd suggest splitting the features specific to your guild out into a separate addon. If that's not possible, or would be too much work, at least make sure they are totally disabled and hidden from users who are not part of your guild.

[Elderin]

Originally Posted by Phanx I'd suggest splitting the features specific to your guild out into a separate addon. If that's not possible, or would be too much work, at least make sure they are totally disabled and hidden from users who are not part of your guild.

I thought about both. Since our code is open, anyone with smarts can change it to suit themselves, thus bypassing blocks. The area in question is just displayed info, albeit incorrect for other guilds. I will just code it to not allow access except for my guild.

[Elderin]

Originally Posted by Vlad if you feel so guilty just mention the addon in the description with a link and that should be enough tbh. It's not like you copied his sources, changed some lines and renamed it into your own addon, lol. :P

No guilty feelings. Just trying to be polite, not stomp on toes, follow acceptable protocol.

[Elderin]

Originally Posted by Dridzt On a sidenote I don't know what you mean by 'muddy the question' but the question is particularly useless and has imo a common-sense answer without specifics

I really did not want to get into a discussion regarding the type of addon, its functionality, etc. I was just interested in the protocol for uploading addons whose idea was based on some other addon, even if basically a total rewrite.

No worries.

Thanks, everyone for your input.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Elderin I thought about both. Since our code is open, anyone with smarts can change it to suit themselves, thus bypassing blocks. The area in question is just displayed info, albeit incorrect for other guilds. I will just code it to not allow access except for my guild.

Yeah, the main concerns are that users will be confused by in-game references to features that aren't actually available or don't actually do anything because they're not in your guild, and that resources will be wasted responding to events or doing other things that won't actually affect the user because they're not in your guild. As long as both of those are addressed, having "hidden" features is not really a problem.

[Elderin]

Originally Posted by Phanx Yeah, the main concerns are that users will be confused by in-game references to features that aren't actually available or don't actually do anything because they're not in your guild, and that resources will be wasted responding to events or doing other things that won't actually affect the user because they're not in your guild. As long as both of those are addressed, having "hidden" features is not really a problem.

Phanx, thank you very much for making me think. I woke up in the middle of night last night and realized it would make much more sense to break it out into separate modules. So, I am in the process of doing that. Thanks, again.