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I'm sorry, but the following post is a bit long. I've been reading a lot of how wowmatrix is not liked by authors, Curse, Wowinterface, etc for many reasons. Over the past several months, I (as an end-user) have noticed several changes to the program. Let me list what I currently see in the program.
Wowmatrix's screen layout.
When I click on an addon that I have loaded or one that I want to load, I see the following:
1. A link to where ever WM is getting the addon from. This could be Curse, Wowinterface, WowUI, Googlecode, the autor's web site, etc.
2. A link called "Donate" which takes me to the author's donation page (not Wowmatrix donation page). I don't see this with Curse's updater. I have to actually go to the curse web site to find a link to donate. Sounds like wowmatrix is more supportive of donations to authors than curse is. Would be nice if the curse updater made a similar option available since some users will rarely go to the curse web site since the curse updater does a good job of updating curse hosted addons.
3. The name of the author. Just in case people think that wowmatirx is not giving credit to the author.
4. The version which I have installed.
5. The latest version found on site #1 above.
6. A short description of the addon.
When an addon is being hosted by curse or wowinterface and no longer available for download, I see a link called "Offline".
A recent change in the program: when I click on the "offline" link, I see the following:
This particular AddOn 'name of addon' cannot be installed or updated at this time because it is being hosted at either Curse or Wowinterface.
Both of those websites do not wish to have updaters connect to their sites, and have deliberately blocked updaters from doing so, starting right on the day of the 3.1 patch.
Although we do not agree with the actions of these sites, we respect their position in this matter, and are working on ways to bring you a quality selection of addons without connecting to these sites.
If 'name of addon' comes with a free distribution license (such as GPL, BSD, public domain, etc), let us know and we should be able to get it back online relatively quickly by hosting it on our servers.
Otherwise, if you know the author of 'name of addon', you may wish to get in touch with them and see if they would like to host their AddOn(s) on our servers, and have them contact us if they do.
In the meantime, that you, for you patience and understanding.
Sounds to me like Wowmatrix is doing what a lot of people were complaining it wasn't doing.
It is giving credit to the author by listing their name.
It is making it easier for users to donate to the author by adding a "donate" link for the addon. Not all addons have that link in wowmatrix so I'm not sure how they configure it. I saw that Auctioneer has the link.
It is showing version numbers of the addon.
I've read several times that Wowmatrix modifies the addon's files. I just spot checked several of my addons and the .TOC file appears to be the author's original file.
Is is possible that Wowmatrix has been addressing the "author community's" complaints and making changes to their program?
Would someone who actually saw changes made by wowmatrix to an addon's code, check a newly downloaded version of the addon (using Wowmatrix) to see if the changes are still being made?
PS: Even though I have used Wowmatrix for over a year, I still visit Curse and Wowinterface several times a week. Curse and Wowinterface have unique information that I want to read and addon's I want to download directly from their sites. I do understand why Curse and Wowinterface do not like what Wowmatrix was doing and I agree that wowmatrix was basically getting free bandwidth. The purpose of my post was to share information on what I see as a wowmatrix user.
Last edited by sconley : 04-19-09 at 07:50 AM.
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