oUF_NIN

_sporadic · 01-12-13, 02:58 AM

What happened to this addon? It seems to have disappeared entirely from the site, as well as the author himself, NIN.

Phanx · 01-12-13, 04:37 AM

I think you answered your own question. Addon authors are just people. They lose interest in WoW, things happen and they don't have time for WoW anymore, etc.

_sporadic · 01-13-13, 12:04 AM

Yeah, but to delete the addon and their account? I just assumed it was something other than that, the author has stopped playing before, but left both intact.

nin · 01-13-13, 03:16 AM

Im still around on the site!

But i did remove my layout from the site due to a couple of reasons, if you have any questions feel free to drop me a PM.

Phanx · 01-13-13, 05:50 PM

If I were ever to decide I were quitting and not coming back, I would delete my addons, too. Better that than let them sit around and slowly break over time and let people wonder why I wasn't fixing anything.

Dawn · 01-23-13, 06:20 AM

People will see that an addon is abandoned. Deleting it would just rip it out of the world. However, leaving it there will open up possibilities. Like someone else picking it up or posting a fix in the comments, inspiring others with a specific style, layout or code, yourself returning - which is what I did and would have lost all and everything after over a year of absence and I too thought I wouldn't play again, ever.

I don't see the point in laying waste to your own work, even if you move on. It's like an artist burning his pictures, or an architect razing his buildings. Some emotional crap for sure, but nothing making sense.

Phanx · 01-23-13, 08:04 PM

Your artist analogy is flawed. A better analogy would be an artist who decided to withdraw from the "art scene" and withdrew all of his paintings from galleries, choosing instead to store them away in his attic. Similarly, when a book goes out of print, it stops being available in book stores, but that doesn't mean that every copy everywhere is destroyed.

Originally Posted by Dawn

People will see that an addon is abandoned.

People very often don't notice that the last update for an addon was 3 years ago. Go take a peek at the addon help forum here, or over on WowAce. People post all the time about having just downloaded this addon that seems really great except it spams them with errors in combat, and had no idea that the addon hadn't been updated in years.

Originally Posted by Dawn

However, leaving it there will open up possibilities. Like someone else picking it up or posting a fix in the comments, inspiring others with a specific style, layout or code, yourself returning...

Having "someone else picking it up" isn't always an option, if the author did not choose a license that allows modification and redistribution.

In any case, posts like this -- even if you didn't mean it that way -- come across as annoyingly entitled. Writing an addon doesn't mean I'm obligated to continue making it available to everyone forever, or that I'm now responsible for "inspiring others" with anything.

Dawn · 01-23-13, 08:56 PM

Err, I just meant, instead of taking your time to delete that stuff, leave it there so it might be of some use to someone. No other implications ...

ofc, one can do whatever he/she wants with his/her stuff.

Besides, I wasn't talking about the people who don't realize that an addon hasn't been updated forever. No offense meant, but those people most likely wouldn't be able to benefit from it still being there, for real. Aka, deleting stuff wouldn't effect them, one way or the other. I was rather referring to other addon authors.