WowMatrix Responds!
 

Just read this a few mins ago on WoWInsider. Here's the direct link to the "FAQ" as they are calling it on WowMatrix's site.

I had a good laugh...

/popcorn

EDIT: Links to WowMatrix are blocked (not that I blame WoWI) had to take the link out, just follow the link in the WoWInsider post.

Mods, can we get the link re-instated?

While I understand blocking links to WoWM, due to various problems with the client, I think that in this case it's a valid resource (not discussing the content, I'll let others take thier shots first).

Also, ideally I think this thread should be locked, and this post added to the existing one (here)

Be prepaired for another 2000+ post count thread here. Now, in my opinion WM is attempting to appear as martyrs here. The problem with that is that a certain notable and arguably holy figure from about 2000 years ago didn't nail himself to the cross, nor pierce his own side with a Roman sword. He also didn't post a FAQ afterwards filled with blatant lies and attempting to blame everyone else for his problems.

'Nuff said. (no, not really lol)

That's what I originally had in mind... but after I thought about it, it seemed to me that it warranted a separate thread. That one is already 60 pages and most people have read it I think, so they might just pass it over.

On topic though, as voodoo said it just seems as though they are trying to look like the victim here, and gain some respect back. Personally I think it's appalling.

I think the worst part of all of this is that WOWI has gotten lumped into it.

I think Curse has done a lot of questionable stuff in the past, and there is no reason to think they would stop now. But when WOWI was (basically) forced into the shutdown on that day, they became a part of the whole conspiracy.

Its not fair to WOWI, and I'm sure more wm users will be over today to tell us how terrible we are.

Heh, yeah the whole FAQ was really a joke. I especially liked the way they kept claiming that WoWI and Curse were preventing them from hosting on their own servers. Of course, Curse and WoWI don't own the rights to these addons, and therefore can't grant redistribution rights, but hey, lets not taint a perfectly good argument with blatant facts!

I just found it funny that they actually called it a FAQ. The WoWInsider writer sort of pointed this out, but I don't think those are as much questions people are asking, as they are answers WowMatrix whats you to know, as full of libel as they are.

I have to say that 99% of the commenters on that story are useless wastes of space. All of em WM supports, aka they drank the Kool-Aid. Not only that, they keep swilling down more of the Kool-Aid.

That FAQ reminds me so much of the Fox News Channel. I get FNC via Sky here in Italy and my word, I have never seen so much BS. Same thing with this "FAQ" from WoWMatrix. Sheesh.

Unfortunately there is no way to override the censorship. I'm fairly certain even administrator posts are censored.

Yeah, I actually stopped reading the comments after about the third one. I was starting to get angry, and for the sake of my monitor had to close the page. Such is life with a short temper.

I thought very briefly about posting a comment, however within about 3 milliseconds, I realized that I would get a better (and more enlightened) response by going downstairs and bashing my head on the side of the building. At least the pain would be done and over with quicker. :rolleyes:

I love these:

Obviously, it is very lucrative to leech the data.

That finger pointing FAQ is not childish at all....

While I believe WoWM's side of the story, I also believe that most of the animosity has stemmed from Curse and their greed.

WoWI on the other hand, developing a free application without limits and a premium service simply to remove ads, seems less of an aggressor. They seem like they may have been pushed into some sort of cut off agreement. :/

Personally, I would be willing to bet Curse was the one to bringing up the idea of cutting WoWM off and they coaxed WoWI to go along…which is most likely due to their premium updater being released as the article suggested.

What bothers me most in this whole situation is that we are now back to scavenging multiple sites for the correct updates for our plugins.

I have both the free Curse updater and the older WoWI updater and can say they do not work well together. Not only because neither site is a one stop shop for addons but because even addon information doesn't always match. You could have one plugin on both sites with both being the same version and author but because the addon info differs it will see it as needing an update when switching between updaters.

So, I wish that either all three would band together to provide a one stop shop for addons or at the very least ensure that addon information is exactly the same so if you update with one plugin all the others recognize the update.

13-08-08 Originally posted by Nevcairiel @ WoWAce relevant thread.

Premium is also mentioned in the aforementioned thread and has been known to most avid addon users for months. That was aprox. 9 months ago and you may notice, Curse was paying for WoWAce for 2 years before that with 0 gains and mostly (if not only) loses, so that people can get their free bacon. Yes, you guessed it, it's the same people that call "Greed ! Greed !" now. Thankfully there are still some of us in the community with a good memory. I won't judge how Curse has elected to run their business (because at the end of the day the reality is, IT IS a business that needs a sustainable model to continue providing the things it provides and all can enjoy), but I cannot deny facts. Yes, the free version of CC may be too restrictive in certain cases, yes some parts of their website could be very much improved (or revamped even), fact remains. It still costs nothing to update an addon. Not a thing, either through the free version of CC or manually. On the other hand, you always have a choice to support the people that are busting their collective...behinds for this community for years, by providing (and paying for) much needed services so that authors can get their stuff out, whatever the name of the website they represent is.

I wouldn't point the finger at Curse. It has been mentioned that while Curse and Wowinterface are here to serve the community, it costs money and takes a lot of work to do so. Is it not within Curse's right to at least make the money back that they have spent? People don't work for free, you know.

I haven't really been to fond of Curse ever since they dropped the "-gaming.com" from their domain name. I don't like their new layout, forums, or any part of the site, to be honest. I also am not too fond of their updater. It has crashed a lot for me, and it doesn't recognize all of my addons. Also, I can understand a premium version, but they really crippled the updater even further when they took out one-click updating.
But, with all this said, Curse was still, along with Wowinterface, getting the raw deal here. I respect Curse just as much as I do Wowinterface.

I find it amusing how Wowmatrix points the blame, and even more amusing how their supporters follow them so blindly and are so incredibly ignorant.

tl; dr
lol, wowmatrix... you so funny. wowi/curse ftw.

Wow...so many of them willing to believe WM no matter what proof is shown to them (which links to topics showing their wrong doings were given many times in that topic) .

Its really sad, they scream curse/wowi don't care about the users, but then those users show they don't give a damn about the sites that supply them their addons, and would rather stick with a company who is proven to be in the wrong.

They sit there turning a blind eye because all they care about is themselves. Far as I'm concerned the only greedy ones here are the users who have no respect for the cost and work that go into these sites.

Whether you love Curse or hate it, you have to respect them as a business. I'm not fond os the website layout but will use their updater. And I won't ***** that it has adds, or is slow either; because it's free. No one has the right to complain when it's free. I still support Curse and WoWI in this. They pay the bills so why should WM get a free ride?

Imagine going to Wal-mart to find some cheap clothes, and you find out later that they have been stealing boxes from Sears and Bay trucks and selling them. Wouldn't Wal-mart lose a whole lot of respect in most people's eyes? Similar scenario.

Those are the kind of petty comments that a professional business generally doesn't make.

I can heer WM's QQ's threw teh interwebz :rolleyes:

Which is why WoWM provide such brilliant tools for the budding author and Curse/WoWI doesn't.

Oh wait. :(

Who said anything about Curse not making money? Sure, make money to pay for hosting the site through ads, not through users. Let the users contribute directly to the authors as it should be.

I am calling out their greed because of their recent thirst (as I see it) for money. Why should I stop myself just because they were a better company in the past?

If I saved a life 2 years ago does that absolve me from taking a life today?

I am only making comments based on the way Curse is portraying themselves right this moment, not the way they have in the past.

Furthermore, why is someone who chooses a side always considered a blind follower and or ignorant?

Forgive us for supporting something that personally made our lives a little easier and spared a moment of our lives so that I could spend it doing something other than playing World of Warcraft/Updating mods.

There is no clear answer to who is right an wrong here. One side says the other is at fault, the other points the finger right back. We don't really have proof either way as to who is to blame.

All I know is I would enjoy another mass updater, free or otherwise, if it would simply auto update and pull from all sites so no background work has to be done.

Either that or as I said above, at least develop universal addon information.

Glad to see they "responded" in a timely manner.

Wonder how many pieces of paper where wasted while trying to write it :D


Honestly I find it hard to believe what the WM FAQ (if that's what you want to call it) says is even close to being true.

Oh well ... We already know the truth. I believe WoWI and Curse over a rouge application that had ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in the community until the community that it claimed it was helping revolted against them.

Now they are desperately grabbing at some very short ropes trying to hang on as I'm sure their FREE ad revenue they received from their own ads and the fact they leeched from here and Curse has most likely been severely cut back.

Personally I have no interest in auto updaters. Even the future Minion. I MUCH rather hit this site for almost everything related to addons. I just go to Curse for those few addons that are not hosted or updated here. I like coming here to see what's new (whether it be WoW related news or new addon releases), to actually see what's changed in the addons I use by reading their change logs and actually determining if I really need the latest version. Waste of time downloading an addon cause it fixed a typo.

Flawed logic because you cant truly steal something that was free in the first place.

It's more like three clothing outlets all with a similar clothing line. Two are paying for shipping while the third is just having his stuff delivered on the same trucks and saving on shipping. :p

Not saying it is right, compensation and an agreement should be made.

I find it hard to comprehend how someone can believe WM's side of the story. I admit if this "disagreement" were merely between WM, WoWI and Curse I might find it hard to discern who was being truthful here.

However that is not the case, many AddOn authors themselves have been speaking out against WM since they released their updater. WM changed code to remove donation requests and did not cite authors and give credit where credit was due. Do these authors not deserve to be known for their work? Do they not deserve contributions from those who wish donate?

At first many authors just wanted to be cited for their work since WM did not provide this information when downloading an AddOn. After WM did nothing many authors asked for their AddOns to be removed, after all, it is their work. Still, WM did nothing.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, I could keep going but I digress, I'm hungry. Time for lunch!

?

This comment confuses me. lol

That was sarcasm.

However the meat of that statement:

WM does not provide any tools for AddOn authors other than a means of distribution. However both Curse and WoWInterface both provide a means of distribution, a version control system (this is a biggie for authors as this allows them to keep track of changes to their code), forums to solict user feedback and bug reports, plus a place for the Author to showcase their AddOn.

All WM offers is a way to move the mod and to see it in an updater. There is no place to showcase the mod, no tools to help the developer, no forums for the developer to interact with his/her users, in short no compelling reason for an Author to use WoWMatrix.

See what Lykofos said. (It's fairly difficult to respond promptly while raiding at the moment).

I do find it hilarious that the moment the people who have provided so much support the last couple of years asks for a little in return at this harsh period. People are far too happy to bite the hand that feeds them.

Heh... I understood the sarcasm. I did not understand what specifically what they were implying though.

Forums and feedback are most beneficial to users, not authors, unless the addon wasnt free.

Showcasing is just more time the author has to spend explaining what their addon does and why it does it. While some may enjoy this process, many do not seem to care either way.

Version control system? I wouldn't see this as being much of a problem but I will take your word for it.

User interaction is seems to be at the bottom of authors list. In fact, many authors have stopped making plugins simply because people left negative or hurtful feedback. Most recently, the author of Outfitter WAS going to stop releasing public updates for this exact reason.

Reasons to use WoWMatrix ... it's lite, simple and quick. The author information is displayed and they added a donation popup so you can easily contribute directly to the author.

Really, I don't support anything here other than an easy-to-use updater. The fact that I believe WoWMatrix is mostly because of the information I have seen. I haven't seen information that has definitively proven one side or another. Until a time when that can be done, I will support whatever updater saves me time and enables me to just hop on and play the way I want for an hour or less. The minutes I save having to update 30-40 mods is better spent going to the spending time with my loved ones or going to the gym.

They aren't asking for a little in return. A little is what they are already receiving via ads and such. They are asking a lot from users with the introduction of their premium service (speaking of Curse of course) with virtually no benefit.

The main selling points of curse premium? No ads and update all. Both would be awesome features and well worth a premium if they actually worked as intended. Because Curse doesn't host all the most popular addons, you still have to venture to other sites and by doing that you are still subjecting yourself to ads at those other sites. This makes both selling points for the Curse premium subscription moot.

I fully support WoWI and the course they are going. I wish they would not have blocked WoWMatrix but look forward to their new updater.

And this sentiment right here is at the meat of it.....

When you have an issue with your add ons, good luck getting WoWM to help you.

I just posted this in another thread, but I want to make darn good and sure that everyone has seen it, so posting it here as well.


No, I'm not saying that there has been any in here so far, but I'm just warning you guys that my patience is at an end.

They also give 20% of the income to addon developers which is a nice touch. But far too many people see addons as something they are entitled to. But anyway I'm driving this off topic to being about curse, which it should be. I guess my over arching statement was that WoWI and Curse were never going to be able to provide a free lunch forever.

Which is exactly what they are doing with the free version of the CC client (which has ads as you are well aware). Users can still contribute to the authors directly, should they choose to. Nothing in that regard has been taken away from them. Please decide where you are going with this and stop contradicting yourself.

So this is all a huge conspiracy of Curse to suddenly make money, when they have been paying to support addons for years with no form of tangible compensation that would allow them to sustain themselves and provide better services to both the authors and users ? Ok.

There must be a rule against flawed analogies really (on this site or anywhere else for that matter). Would you have payed to cover the expenses of a service that you received zero benefit from ? In what universe ? Because I want to live there.

Because you choose a side purely with the mindset that they provided something that was beneficial and convenient to you (which no one has refuted EVER), despite the harmful and detrimental consequences it may have had on others. There is always the other side of the coin.

Oh, trust me it is very, very clear who is right. Have you been following the subject for a couple of years as many of us have, you would have realized this. Hell, you can even now go back to WoWAce and do some research on how it all started, what their stance was and what has transpired since then. There is plenty of proof of how WM was operating then and how they slowly (and stealthily) changed their stance, in order to gain the support of their users, make us look like liars, while continuing to reap the benefits of work that no one opted-in to have them support/distribute.


Like I said, realistically speaking, this is unlikely to happen, in the real world barring some sort of a miracle. Minion seems promising, as it will supposedly allow freedom of modules that can handle downloads not hosted on WoWI. Whether the other websites will be willing to go along with this (and any terms involved) remains to be seen. Time will tell.

I find it rather disturbing that wowinterface and curse gaming are trying to now make money off wm idea.

Touche

That is why I think all three sites should work together. If I had a problem, I would spend a few minutes tinkering with it at best then head over to WoWI to see if anyone else had the problem. If not, then I just disable the addon for the time being or possibly look for an alternative.

I am all for the donation program setup for authors. However, I prefer giving 100% to the authors since there are no real perks subscribing to premium. IMO, I am wasting 80% of my money when that could be going to the right people.

Sorry man, I stopped reading what you said after the third quote. You clearly have not understood much of what I was saying and are just not admitting to it. There is no contradiction, read everything I have said again if you want ... have at it.

I am not getting into an argument with you and will leave as much alone with just saying I agree to disagree.

Forums and feedback are useful authors as well. While an author can spend a lot of time debugging, users will still find bugs. Its just the nature of programming. For many small AddOns, a single forum thread takes care of their feedback needs. Other larger AddOns may have entire forum sections devoted to just them (look at oUF on this site for a good example).

Those authors who do a poor job of "selling" their AddOn to a potential user usually finds that the author does not get many downloads. An good author will take the time to show a potential user why his/her AddOn would be a good addition to the user's UI. Such a write up will include screenshots and in some cases even videos. Personally I want to see what an AddOn does before I hit the download button.

You are not an author so you would not see the benefits of a version control system such as SVN, Git or Mecurial. Then again an average user will never see the inside of a development repository nor should they. However I am a power user, tester, and AddOn author. I know the benefits of using a version control system. I have even have a Git set up on my machine to keep track of my local changes to my AddOns.

The author of Outfitter was going to stop public releases of his mods in protest over the new UI Development policy that Blizzard unleashed a few weeks ago. This had NOTHING to do with user interaction.

Most AddOn authors welcome user interaction as those users (in particular power users) will submit ideas and bug reports. Other users will contribute artwork, textures and even additional modules for the AddOn. Users who speak languages other than the author's will do localization (aka translation) for an author as well. Trust me, this is a big deal with WoW being a multi language game.

The only reason why author info and the donation pop-ups where added was to try to regain some "legitimacy" from Authors. However this is a case of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. The changes where made to WoWMatrix after Authors hammered on WM for years (literally). WoWMatrix first popped up on our radar back in October of 2007.

No one has EVER said that WoWMatrix's updater was crappy. In fact all have said it is an excellent tool. However the business practices of WoWMatrix is what has drawn the wrath of Authors, Curse and WoWInterface. Curse and WoWI have tried to work with WM, however WM has constantly rebuffed them (contrary to WM's "FAQ"). Authors have found it to be extremely difficult to get their AddOns removed from the updater. In some case Authors have had to resort to using DMCA takedown notices to get their Addons removed.

Now I run quite a few AddOns myself. Do you know how many I have to update at a time? 3 to 4 a week IF there are major code changes. The vast majority of changes are small things that do not effect the AddOn. These changes are things like version control tag changes, or localization updates (aka a button that says No in English got translated to "nien" in German). Do you really need these changes? No. So why update 35 to 40 AddOn daily or even weekly? I do all my updates manually. This is on top of being a father, moderating several forums, serving as a Guild officer, keeping my house clean, cooking, getting out for my hour's daily walk, getting my kid to and a from school plus helping with homework and a myriad of other daily RL tasks.

What?!? What exactly is the "wm idea" that Curse and WoWI are "tying to now make money off"?

I assume he's thinking that WM was the first to come up with an auto-updater.

Fair enough it's up to you and what you consider your priority. If I'm being honest I'd rather throw the money straight at Tek (only mentioning him as I just this moment updated one of his addons :P) than an auto updater. But since I'm out of work it's not feasible for me to do anything at the moment.

Given the choice I'd happily become a supporter of WoWI and throw the odd couple of quid towards the authors who genuinely make my life a little easier. Nothing against Curse. I get more mileage out of this website. Oh and the community is much better too. ;)

Ah **** driven it off topic again! Sorry.

Right, because WoWI is charging for minion. Oh, and Curse didn't pay for WAU's bandwidth at no gain to themselves, long before WM released their updater. I thoroughly see your point.

I'm not sure, but I think that's the first thing you've said that I agree with.

It isn't that I don't see a benefit, it's that I don't know much about it in the first place.



Reading the discussion between the author and the users, I would say otherwise. It was said by the author he had been thinking about stopping for awhile simply because of the community and they the Blizzard thing was simply the push off the ledge. He displayed a lot of upset toward the community regarding the community.



That would make sense, however I am just commenting on what features they now have in place. Ever program is allow progression.



I cannot disagree, however being a father I would figure you would see the value of it just as much as I do. Personally, I update out of habit. You are correct that addons dont need to be updated that often. It is a pain though after a major patch to track everything down and try to remember what goes where, which is another reason I keep my addons up-to-date.

Even on Patch days, I have never had an issue with updating my AddOns. Normally most authors will release updated versions (if their mods need updating, some of Tek's AddOns have not needed updates in the last two or three years) a few days in advance of Patch Day. If they don't have a release version, they will have a (usually) stable beta that will work with the new patch. I just download those AddOns a couple days prior to Patch Day, stash em in a folder and when Patch Day hits, unzip and go (that is if the WoW servers are alive).

There are tools that will help you find updated mods. Personally, I love Fin's AddOn site: http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/ I have that site's RSS feed in my Live Bookmarks. Thus I can do a quick mouse over that bookmark and see what's new and updated. A quick click brings me to that AddOn's page where I can see the change log. From there I can make the decision to go to that AddOn's authorized site and download (a handy link is provide to each of that AddOn's host(s). Its simple and easy. Plus I always have a backup in case something goes wrong.

Here is that RSS feed in action:

This wowmatrix thing continues to bore me to death, they're not right, no matter how they try to prove it and for those who still blindly defend WM just make numbers about the expenses from running a major ui site (which i don't think that runs on a single dedicated server :P), you will start screaming

So many awesome things to reply to this with... so little motivation to type them all out as they'll fall on deaf ears. :[

Cool, will check that out tonight when I get home.

Thanks

Basically what it comes down to is no one's been an angel in all of this. It'd be great if we could all just hold hands and sing songs, but business is business and it's all about making it at the cost of competitors. Even if you didn't initially sign up for the business model, that's where all three are now.

TL;DR - BANANAS

:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

The problem I have with the RSS feeds is that they tell me ALL updates instead of just my addons. I like using the favorites feature here on wowinterface much better. I'm thinking about using that one guy's website that Lykofos has mentioned, since it works similarily to the wowinterface favorites but it grabs updates from Curse (and wowui) as well.

Quit being mean you mean old High Elf! ;)



^That's for summing up how this whole past couple of months has been, for me. If you're legal drinking age, it's a beer, if not, the soda of your choice.

Anything else I'd have to say wouldn't be nice, so I'll just keep my trap shut and try to ignore this thing, this time. Good luck guys, hope it doesn't last too very long.

**warning really long verbose post just like the good ones**
You can go to the gym and spend time with your loved ones in 15 minutes O_o

Because that is about how long I spend updating my addons. I use 89 addons not including multiparts to one addon and other addons that come in the same package as another addon.

I update every week to 10 days. I look at 8-9 addon pages. Download maybe 4 updates. Doesn't take me more than 15 minutes. Again that's 15 minutes every 7 - 10 , examing 8-9 webpages downloading 4 addon updates. Getting in the car and driving to the gym is actually harder and longer.

Updating your addons manually isn't a ardous , time consuming process. If you do things right it shouldn't take you longer then consuming a bagel and a cup of coffee. They do not update in major ways every single day and hence do not need to be updated every single day. Once these 2 truths are realized then the need for an automatic updater program disappears.

Quoted for Fricken Truth

Personally I'ld like my money going towards the site as well. Servers don't run on sunshine,rainbows and bacon. Bandwidth isn't free. I like to think my $$$$$ is going towards support a site I love with valuable forums , author support and invaluable author tools (this is true for both Curse and Wowinterface)

Personally Lykofos I'm lazy.

I'm so lazy that I would prefer that when an addon author posts an update I get an email about it.

It's the push method of updating (ie the addons push their updates at me) rather then the pull method of updating.

My problem with going to check is I often forget to update. Not that that breaks my UI or anything :D

1) I believe the Author of Outfitter is a "she". In the explanation given for her actions she does list that on the night she heard of this she was going out with her male partner's parents for dinner. Either that or a gay male :D

2) It's already been explained by the author of Outfitter. She had her male partner's parents down for the evening. Kinda of hurt about the UI policy she pulled all her addons off wow interface. Unfortunately she didn't do it the right way so some people's versions of Outfitter got borked. She posted an apology for it and fixed it up.

3) The author of Outfitter after 2 months of no response from Blizzard regarding the issue decided not to punish their users so decided to keep going with updating Outfitter.

Wow, just, wow... :eek:

I thought I'd seen pathetic and blatant lies before, but this takes the cake.

And just serves to re-affirm my position on the matter: WM will -NEVER- have anything I write now, no matter how much they clean up their act. :mad:

Ohhhh! Shannae! I like your avatar!

*Swiftly returns to topic before a smilie wielding admin can beat him senseless with a wet noodle*

There is a RSS feed for My Favs as well. So the problem should be nil ;)

I'm completely with WoWI on this. And the thread about an issue has given me some really nice ideas:
1. Addons don't need to be updated every day.
2. Not each update is a must, there are minor ones
3. RSS and e-mail feature of "My favorites" here (I really didn't know about it before it was mentioned)

Before WAU I always updated manually, and now I'm back to it (I used WoWMatrix for some time before I've read about issues with it here). A plus side of that is that I browse new uploads and can find new interesting addons to try. And I really like doing that here more, then on Curse - interface here allows to do that more comfortably.

So other then looking through new addons updating isn't taking much time for me now (well it even takes less time as I don't do it every evening before I start WoW). And as for a patch day I always look at it as an opportunity - to try and play WoW without addons again, to try different addon doing the same thing and so on.

i remember when wowmatrix first hit the scene and they "introduced" themselves over at wowace. they didn't get a warm welcome and in general folks began requesting their mods to not be hosted there.

i believe the wowm faq is spun version of the truth, but i also think the curse version of the story is as well. curse says wowm didn't offer enough $$ to offset the cost, wowm says curse tried to buy em out for too little $$. i'd wager most folks think they deserve more salary and most bosses think they pay people too much -- it's just the nature of how you value your own goods and services vs those of others.

i could swear i read somewhere that wowi was really just a secondary actor in this drama -- that curse said they were going to shut down wowm's access and that if wowi didn't as well, then they'd get all the traffic so they should "team up" as it were to make it truly effective (and also to not take the brunt of the updating).

there are always different ways to look at the same story -- is curse giving back to the community by offering $$ back to the addon developers or are they trying to "take over" the addon world by trying to hoard addons? i mean, if i get cash for hosting at curse why would i also host at wowi and siphon off my own financial interest?

is wowi going to have to follow suit (offering some kind of financial incentive to host addons) or will people start hosting "demo versions" of mods so that they get exposure but also hits at curse? will they stop hosting at wowi altogether?

these websites are businesses, afterall, and they're competing for revenues. it's not like wowmatrix was the only competition out there. once they're gone, where will the target land?

things change when you add a money component.

edit: oh yeah, i also remember a lot of folks switching to "ace versions" of addons solely because they could auto-update at wowace. if wowmatrix was smart, they'd simply write their own "matrix versions" of addons and simply compete on that level. wouldn't surprise me if they already have begun.

Curse and wowinterface must pay for their hosting costs.

Curse just decided ads were not enough to cover those costs and expand their services for their user. wowinterfact also has a premium service you do know that right?

Nothing has really changed with the curse client, they have had had the plan to limit certain features to premium users.

So don't pay for the premium service if you don't believe in it. :banana:

You do understand that certain add-ons have certain rights reserved to their author right? I cannot go modify your add-ons unless you give me the the right to do so. That is the wonderful thing about programming its considered an art.

This is a short response to your statement, WM would get C&D orders so fast, I would fall out of my chain every night from laughing to hard.

if your'e talking about my statement that wowmatrix could just write "matrix versions" of addons... i'm not saying they should just cop the code or anything, but the addon community has plenty of instances of somebody implementing the same idea using the same basic premise.

not sure what kind of profits a site like wowmatrix could expect to get from ad revenue, but if they could afford to pay 2 or 3 addon authors to write their own versions of things like a quest helper, a unit frame replacement, a bar addon, a damage meter, a healing interface, etc. they'd likely get good traffic. assuming they could last long enough to get those mods out the door...

People have to remember why WAU went away. It began to crush the Ace website in costs because users thought they needed to update to make sure they had the latest localizations added for languages they did not even speak. The WAU/Ace model is not a sound business if you are looking to be profitable.

The folks over WoWMatrix have already demonstrated they are not in the addon game for the benefit of users or authors. Users are lured into a false sense of "hey, this is a great program" while not really understanding exactly what it is doing to make it "feel" like a great program. WoWM is more like a slimy used car salesman (watch the movie "Matilda" to understand what I mean) using "tricks" to make the car seem great on the lot.

The very fact that WoWM changes addon code to hide bugs and toc numbers when the addon really is not updated for the current interface number should speak volumes of what a WoWM addon original would be like. Instead of caring about bug reports, they will just fake it. Mainly because the cost of keeping on-staff addon developers that have the insight into wow-addon making and maintenance would put them into a negative margin.

I know that there are some WoWM users who will blindly drink WoWM's kool-aid. It is just the nature of humans that some will follow a "leader" ignoring facts. However, from it's start, WoWM has never been about the user nor the authors. The changes they have made were merely "PR" ones, to continue to get those users to drink their kool-aid (if you are too young to understand the kool-aid reference, google "Jim Jones")

WoWInterface cares about the users and authors.

Curse/Ace cares about the users and authors.

WoWM has shown that it does not and the evidence is there for anyone who does not want to turn a blind eye to it. Any in-house addons they provide would just be a continued extension of how they do business: That is, like a used car sales man named "Jim Jones".