wowmods: addon metasite - updates + search
 

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know about my little site:

- http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/

The original intent was to provide a place listing updates to addons hosted over the major sites, so that you didn't have to check each one individually - this is what the main page shows. I've finally gotten off my arse and added a search page:

- http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/find

So, now you can search for an addon without having to go to four different sites. Well, that's the idea, anyway.

It's pretty simple, but I've tried quite hard to make sure the results are relevant. You can search by addon name, author, or just general keyword, and the database has 4585 addons so far included. Comments welcome; I hope people find it useful.

By the way, the intent is not to steal traffic away from any of the sites, especially WoWInterface (which everybody who's anybody knows is the bestest) - just help the sites' users find what they're looking for. (Actually, the main intent was to solve a problem I was having personally! But as I say, hopefully it's useful to other people. :)

cheers,

- Fin

I've been recommending it to people on forum threads here and there and it's been on my guild frontpage useful links for a few months now.

I think it's great.

Thanks! (The cheque's in the post. ;))

wowmods update-o-rama
 

Hello,

and good day to you. I am writing this to let you know about a site I made. It's actually been around for a while, but hasn't changed much from its original (very much lacking) state after I stopped playing WoW nearly a year ago. Now that started playing again, I've finally gotten round to updating the website with some bits that I hope other people might find useful.

It was originally written so I didn't have to check three places whenever I was trying to find an addon, or check for updates.

You can see it here:

• http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/

Here's a quick overview:

• lists updates to addons hosted on Curse, WoWInterface, and (*spit*) ui.worldofwar.net
• updates available for previous hour, day, or three days
• allows filtering by site
• allows advanced filtering using Perlish regular expressions
• supports favourites lists (for registered users)
• can be accessed via an RSS feed (which should show the same list as set after configuring any filtering)
• searchable database (8809 addons across all the sites so far) (I find this really useful when I can't remember where I saw an addon)
• can be added as a Google Gadget to an iGoogle homepage
• supports OpenSearch (at least, it should do!)
• includes detailed information for each addon
• where able, shows: links to sites able to be associated with the addon + changelogs + descriptions + details + update history + version numbers
• easy-to-use/remember URLs? (nobody else is going to care about this, are they, heh :)

Here's some links in addition to the main page, if anyone's interested in having a look:

• http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/rss - to check out the RSS feed (I use it in Google Reader)
• http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/find - I've tried to make it logical, could do with better highlighting)
• http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/help/ - some text files with notes (include a changelog and todo list)

(Aside: just noticed ui.w are back to wowui.w - wtf? Another name change? Pff.)

It's not finished; there's lots more to do. But, now that there's finally favourites lists, I figured it might actually be useful for other people as well as me. :)

Any and all comments, criticisms, suggestions, and / or other similar communications, thoughts, opinions, and missives related, indirectly connected, or even nothing to do with the site are of course happily encouraged, welcome, desired, positively lusted over, and will find a soft warm home in my brain where they can relax with buttery toast and a nice cold alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage of choice and the fine company amongst peers and friends.

cheers,

- Fin

Fin,

I have been using your site ever since someone mentioned it on the WoWAce forums some time late last year or so. I love it. I have the RSS feed as a "Live Bookmark" in Firefox so I all have to do is click my Bookmarks and hover over the "Live Bookmark" to see what's new or updated. I recommend it to my guildies. Great site!.

/me hugs Fin


This site is like an aggregate, searchable rss feed for the three main addon sites. If an addon name is in bold, that means that it's a new addon. There's also a checkbox above the list to show only new addons or all. (This info is also in the help files.) Clicking on a site link for an addon takes you to that addon's download page on that site, where you can download the addon, comment on it, or add it to your favorites list on that site.


Fin's wowmods site receives a seal of approval from the wowinterface staff, and is much healthier for addon sites than external updaters like wowmatrix. :)

Love it! Has been added to my favorites list. Would like to mention however, that the iGoogle gadget doesn't seem to be working. It just loads blank for me.

FF3

Wow what a fantastic site! Not sure how I missed it before but thanks for the awesome site.
That'll make my life a LOT easier when updating.
Call me paranoid but WoWMatrix makes me nervous I much prefer a site like this if I can't have WAU anymore.

Thanks.

Thanks for the kind comments! I'm glad people are finding it useful. Like I said, I'll hopefully be adding some more things soon, so if you can think of anything I can add to my todo list (http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/help/todo.txt) I'd welcome suggestions.

cheers,

- Fin

[edit]
Faraque: that's strange - I've got it on my homepage and it seems to be working OK. I'll have a look into it and see if I can get that fixed. (I have to admit to having had a few issues getting it working in the first place, but I thought that it was all working now.)
[/edit]

I can confirm that the gadget just shows an empty box. :)
Also using FF3.

EDIT: wait actually, lemme try something obvious I overlooked.

EDIT2: nope, doesn't work. :P
I thought I maybe had to register first and add one to my favorites or something, but that didn't help.

I am curious if there's a way to permanently ignore a website (you know which one, Hint: not WoWI or Curse :p). I have trust issues with websites in general and this would put me at ease. :cool:

Other than that, it looks like an awesome site.

Umm, simply don't visit there? Take a little ownership of your link clicking? If you're *that* adverse to going to worldofwar.net, add it to the blocked list of sites in your router/firewall, and you won't be able to go there.

Below the search are 3 tick boxes, just untick the page you do not want and hit update ;)

I'm not sure why, but that doesn't work for me and is the reason I posted. When I click update the box is rechecked and includes that site in the list.

Faraque, I understand that concept well, but I'm recommending the website to others who may not. I was only pointing out that a feature that looked like it should work wasn't working for me.

A couple of updates
 

Ahoy me hearties,

Just a quick post to note a couple of updates from the last few weeks (and today) to my little site:

• removed: unlinked WoWAce references and removed links from main addon detail page
• new: now on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wowmods
• new: page listing addons by author: http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/author/<name> (eg: http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/author/Seerah)
• fix: broken curse links should now work
• fix: you can now have more than 50 bookmarks (oops)

cheers,

- Fin

[edit: the site ignoring checkboxes should work a bit better, too!]