Psh I'm not a seasoned coder. I just do whatever gives me the results I want. To sum it up: I don't code, I hack.
I hang around and sometimes people show up with better and usually easier/more straightforward ways to do things, and that's how I learn to do better I guess.
I blame the lack of
proper API documentation from Blizzard... fansites often just never get updated with new API documentation (For ex:
nameplates are still undocumented on wowpedia, and the 7.2.0 API changes don't even mention forbidden nameplates.) So you have to just mess with it and feel your way around until you figure out how things work, or find the right people to ask for info, who happen to have done the research already.
Though I hear something is in the works with 8.0, as far as official documentation from Blizzard goes...