Compilation crediting

[Politig]

Hi,

When creating an addon compilation, is it required to get explicit permission from each author of each addon used in the compilation to use their addon(s) in the compilation before uploading, or is it okay to give a big thank you to each author after uploading in the description?

Thanks!

[Phanx]

Depends on the addon.

• If it's under the GPL, MIT/BSD license, etc. or if it includes any kind of note that clearly says it's okay to include in compilations, then you don't need permission.
• If it doesn't include anything that says whether it's okay, then technically it's not okay, and you should get permission, though most likely the author doesn't mind.
• If it clearly says it's not okay, or includes an actual copyright notice or a statement like "All Rights Reserved" that makes it obvious the author is aware of that stuff, you should get permission.

In practice most compilation uploaders don't ask and don't read anything, so the fact that you're even asking if you should ask puts you ahead of most.

Other good practices that will make addon authors look more favorably on you:

Include a link back to the addon's download page on your download page, so if the user has problems with a particular addon they know where to go for help, and they can update the addons themselves without you needing to re-upload the entire compilation all the time.

Don't modify the addons. Users don't read (yes, it's a generalization, but it's also very often true ) so even if you mentioned on your download page that a particular addon is modified, if they have a problem with it, they're probably going to go ask the original author for help, and the author will waste their time trying to figure out how on earth that can be happening with their code, only to eventually find out the problem isn't in their code at all. Modifying the addon also means users can't update it themselves, and are likely to accidentally overwrite it if they use Minion or the Curse Client. You can almost always make any changes you want from code running in a separate addon, so if you want to make changes, create an addon called PolitigUI or something, and put all your modifications in there.

[Politig]

Haha, after asking for a few authors for explicit permission, I realized it would take me forever to get it from all of them. Surely there had to be another way!

Unfortunately, I've modified most of the addons in some way. I don't think it would be right to call myself an author though; when uploading, that still counts as a compilation, even under a new addon name "PolitigUI" or something, right?

Thanks for the help!

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Politig I don't think it would be right to call myself an author though; when uploading, that still counts as a compilation, even under a new addon name "PolitigUI" or something, right?

I didn't mean rename the addons you modified or claim to be their author. I meant, instead of modifying code directly in the addon, modify the addon's appearance or behavior from code outside the addon.

For a very simple example, if you have an addon that makes a status bar 100px wide and 20px tall using the default bar texture and a green color, but you want it to be 200px wide and 10px tall with a custom texture and dark gray, instead of just changing the code in the addon, use something like this:

NameOfTheBar:SetWidth(200)
NameOfTheBar:SetHeight(10)
NameOfTheBar:SetStatusBarTexture("Interface\\AddOns\\PolitigUI\\statusbar")
NameOfTheBar:SetStatusBarColor(0.25, 0.25, 0.25)

That's what would go in the "PolitigUI" addon -- little snippets of code to modify the other addons in your compliation.

[Politig]

Urrghghgh. I finished the compilation a long time ago, before I could read any bit of code and understand what it meant; since then, I have taken my first Computer Science course and can actually understand how these addons are working with each other and the game. My baseline UI that I started to modify was SkaarjUI. Within that UI, there is already an addon "SkaarjUI (looking back, this addon is probably the reason why it was so difficult for me to actually change other addon settings). While I'm not opposed to actually creating my own addon "PolitigUI" to change the values, Skarj has already implemented a ton of quality-of-life improvements to the game that I would be missing if I wrote my own version, and if I just rewrote them, I would feel bad for just copying his ideas and making them my own.

TL;DR I think I should just talk to Skarj about releasing my UI as an edit of his. I've changed way too many code blocks in places I shouldn't have and would rather not have to play any more World of UICraft.

Thanks, Phanx, for everything you've said so far though. It'll definitely be useful for the future!

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Politig ... would rather not have to play any more World of UICraft.

You say that like there is some other game you could maybe be playing instead!