Why WowMatrix is bad.
I'm sure many of you use the WoWMatrix program to update your addons. I personally know many people who use it, including my roommate. However, as an addon author, the concept bothers me greatly, and I have actually requested that they stop making my addons available through their program. Why? Here are some things to think about:
1. WoWMatrix doesn't show an addon author's name anywhere. They are making money off of providing access to an addon, and they can't even spare a few pixels of screen space to give its author nominal credit? 2. WoWMatrix doesn't show an addon's real download URL anywhere. This means that users who download an addon through their program have no way to give feedback to the author, or report problems they may encounter. 3. WoWMatrix doesn't show the author's description of an addon anywhere. On a release site, an author can place a big, bold warning at the top of the description stating than an addon is under development, currently in beta status, is not yet complete, and/or may be unstable. Users who find and download an addon through WoWMatrix will never see that warning. They'll just download an addon, deem it broken, and tell their friends that "Addon X sucks, don't use it". While the erstwhile WoWAce suffered from this problem to a lesser degree, it was generally understood that everything on WoWAce should be considered beta. No similar understanding is attached to WoWMatrix. 4. WoWMatrix makes money off of providing access to addons it doesn't host. WoWMatrix doesn't pay the storage bills or the bandwidth bills for the addons you download through its program. If you're downloading an addon that's hosted on WoWInterface, through WoWMatrix, the file is sent to your computer from WoWInterface's servers. Prior to requesting that they remove access to my addons from their service, I inquired as to how their service works, and recieved the following: Quote:
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OMG WUT....
... hey the forum de-capsed my caps, WTF? |
I fully understand and respect your views as they are very valid. However, I have never been charged a dime to use WoWMatrix and cannot find anywhere on the site where they force anyone to give them cash.
It's advertised as free on the official Apple web site and on CNet Download, which gives them heaps of advertising (I can only imagine how many hits that site gets because of this) and yet they are not charging a dime for the software. I see a subtle donation link on the FAQ page which it cool because it's not shoved in my face from the main page. Hell, I don't even see any huge ads in my face other than the well placed small ads for the leveling/gold making guides. As for them not answering your emails, lets go back to how much advertising and site hits they get. I can only imagine they get hundreds if not thousands of emails regarding their product, so it doesn't surprise me if they have not answered your emails. Keep trying though and you'll get through eventually. I cannot find it at the moment, but I got the link for WoWMatrix in the same thread along with the few other non Ace supported addon downloader over on the Ace forums. Anyone can get the addon authors contact info from right inside of the addon folder, or by checking the About feature in game for whatever addon they are checking on. Personally, I don't need to see the authors name. I am only interested in the version numbers, the name of the addon, and a short description of what it does. Anything other info on the GUI is a waste of time for me, the average user. If I really need the info, it's far too easy to come by. Opening WoWMatrix right now and comparing the first 5 or 6 addon descriptions from that window and what is on the Ace file site, the addon descriptions are a dead on match word for word. I use almost 100 addons, I'm not gonna compare em all :D I suppose the only way anyone can protect their bandwidth is to block WoWMatrix at the server level, or for all addon sites to force account creation in order to download anything from their sites. But, I think that would go over like a fart in a diving helmet lol. Let me reiterate, I respect and honor your views and opinions as they are valid. But I am allowed to disagree with them and still like ya's ;) |
1. Revenue does not only come from users paying for a service (good or bad) directly.
2. Your post can be summarized with: "I know it's bad but it's convenient, so who cares". I'm not trying to be confrontational - although disagreement cannot be entirely devoid of that - but that's a whole lot of words to say 1 sentence. :) |
Our stance on WoWMatrix is pretty well summed up in the reasons why we *won't* do stuff with our updater.
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How many users do you think will encounter a problem in a beta-test addon that they don't know is a beta-test addon, and go looking in the .toc file for contact information to report the problem to the author? I'd guess that very, very few users would do this, or even think about this. Most users will just delete the addon, and tell their friends that it's broken and shouldn't be used. Quote:
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Beyond all of those things, the license I release my addons under explicitly forbids any redistribution. That means you can't release MyAwesomeUI if it includes my addon, you can't upload my addon to UI.WorldOfWar, and you can't distribute my addon through a third-party leech site. |
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I've never read that link until now nor had I thought of it quite the way you put it, so I guess I will not be using WoWMatrix anymore. The reason why I was drawn to WoWMatrix is because the GUI is easy to use and it's pleasing to the eye. Not one single other updater is designed for ease of use, none. WAU started crashing entirely too much so it got deleted, and I tried the updater here at WI and got lost as soon as the thing opened. I'll manually update all of the addons that I use... until the Ace files get moved to Curse. Then I suppose I will only use the addons from here, and Carbonite. |
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I hate WoWMatrix
Not many people care about authors, or care to fill out bug reports. It's sad. If it doesn't work on the first try, it's 'broken' to the person who tried it. They didn't trouble shoot, it didn't work so they ditched it and told every one else that it doesn't work.
Some people's kids... |
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And then some day, you find a bug. You want it examined and post the error log... what do you do? You use your friendly site Google.com for the mod and find a site where you can post feedbacks and logs. I know i do it on the mods im using (except for those that hasnt been updated for a while) and in that case, WoWMatrix is a good way to see what kind of addons there are out there, since many ppl dont wanna go on multiple sites, just to find that specific addon to update or find. So in that mean, i'd say both the authors and those that hosts WoWMatrix is getting benefits from the "deal". Even the users gets benefited, since they get a easy way to find the mod they wanna use. So who cares if they make a little money of it, no one forces them to host it. |
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The point is (A) redistributing these without the original authors permission is illegal. Period. It doesn't matter that they remove it at the authors request, providing it on their service in the first place WAS illegal. (B) Using other sites bandwidth is EXTREMELY bad netiquette. I don't know if there are laws about it or not, but all the same its a major no no. Sites like WoWI get the money to pay for their bandwidth through advertising. When tools like WoWMatrix use that bandwidth without showing the ADs, they are LITERALLY stealing money from the legit site. |
Not to mention that when an effort is made to circumvent their theft, they find another brute force way to haxxor in and steal it.
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Most will delete the addon and download another similar one from WoWMatrix, bypassing any help to the author. And as others have stated, offering them without permission initially and using the bandwidth from other sites, is wrong. And for those users that donate to addon authors, the authors are robbed of that by bypassing the addon home (or where it's based), but WoWMatrix not only has ads (which will pay them while not having to pay for bandwidth, hosting, etc.) but they have a donation button on it, which again takes away from the authors, as people would then donate to the program and not the authors. |
Well, I've demanded they remove the mods I author from their site, still no action.
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None of my addons are on that site, thank god. I'd rather see my addons on WoWUI and curse, because at least they don't use underhanded tactics.
I <3 WoW Interface :) |
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And as far as i know, there is no other updater that still works like this. WAU could only update ace-addons, WoWUI can only update what the authors are hosting here, Curse can only provide with what authors are updating on their sites and so on... WoWMatrix collects every of those sites and that's what's makes it a good way, even tho they are "taking" the copyrights... I don't think there will come a similar updater like this that DOESN'T break any rules, so atm, this is still the best... Although, i can agree that they aint hosting the author's name anywhere is bad, but what can you do to stop it, except to sue them? |
There are other cross-site updaters which are more reputable and respectful than wowmatrix.
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You also say how can we stop them except sue them... well you are correct, we can't. But the fact that we can't stop them most certainly does not make it GOOD. |
I couldn't agree more. WoWMatrix can be prejudicial both to WoWInterface and addons' authors.
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