Well wowi needs a bit of author drama every couple years to keep things from getting stale.
Last good entertainment of the kind was when EWOlson injected ads into his addons hosted on wowi over the wowmatrix affair.
Some of us have been sharing addons we make for free just as long without asking for some kind of medal for it.
That is because it's a hobby inside another hobby and you don't monetize your hobbies lest they become jobs.
If you want to get an idea of what motivates addon authors to share their work (it varies) you can see a recent survey with voluntary participation of several active addon authors here.
http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=48549
Of particular interest to you all might be these 2 questions / answers
Question 8: When you began developing addons, would you say your PRIMARY reason was:
Trying to fill a personal in-game need: 26 (70.27%)
Trying to fill an in-game need of someone else I knew: 2 (5.41%)
Wanted to improve the game for all players: 1 (2.7%)
Wanted to learn more about programming addons: 8 (21.62%)
Hoped to develop job skills, or get a job in the games industry: 0
Wanted to meet other people interested in addons: 0
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Question 21: Which is a more accurate way to describe your opinion of developing an addon?
It's like a game itself, that I play for fun or relaxation: 20 (57.14%)
It's a way to give something to others to improve their game play: 4 (11.43%)
It's a way to learn new technical skills: 9 (25.71%)
It's a job, or work, that I do for reasons other than fun: 2 (5.71%)
It's a opportunity to meet others socially: 0
It's a way to gain the approval of others by showcasing my technical skills: 0
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So I guess he falls into the minority of "It's a job, or work, that I do for reasons other than fun".
In a sense I can understand that he doesn't appreciate the tools, convenience, hosting wowi offers but most of all just the part about being a meeting place for addon authors and users.
Minimal presence to offer or even request assistance in
Developer Forums.
To share some knowledge you know?
So you have a guy who's been taking from collective knowledge in order to improve their 'product' and trying to monetize their hobby for years, finally pushing the line they've been skirting and getting called out for it.
Excuse me that I don't join the pity party and I've written and shared a few tens of thousands of lines of Lua.
I'm fully aware Blizzard is indirectly benefiting from my hobby endeavor as well as the hosting sites from ad revenue, but I didn't discover this just now... I was aware and accepting when I shared my first addon.