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04-19-09, 06:38 AM   #601
sconley
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I'm sorry, but the following post is a bit long. I've been reading a lot of how wowmatrix is not liked by authors, Curse, Wowinterface, etc for many reasons. Over the past several months, I (as an end-user) have noticed several changes to the program. Let me list what I currently see in the program.

Wowmatrix's screen layout.
When I click on an addon that I have loaded or one that I want to load, I see the following:
1. A link to where ever WM is getting the addon from. This could be Curse, Wowinterface, WowUI, Googlecode, the autor's web site, etc.
2. A link called "Donate" which takes me to the author's donation page (not Wowmatrix donation page). I don't see this with Curse's updater. I have to actually go to the curse web site to find a link to donate. Sounds like wowmatrix is more supportive of donations to authors than curse is. Would be nice if the curse updater made a similar option available since some users will rarely go to the curse web site since the curse updater does a good job of updating curse hosted addons.
3. The name of the author. Just in case people think that wowmatirx is not giving credit to the author.
4. The version which I have installed.
5. The latest version found on site #1 above.
6. A short description of the addon.

When an addon is being hosted by curse or wowinterface and no longer available for download, I see a link called "Offline".

A recent change in the program: when I click on the "offline" link, I see the following:
This particular AddOn 'name of addon' cannot be installed or updated at this time because it is being hosted at either Curse or Wowinterface.
Both of those websites do not wish to have updaters connect to their sites, and have deliberately blocked updaters from doing so, starting right on the day of the 3.1 patch.
Although we do not agree with the actions of these sites, we respect their position in this matter, and are working on ways to bring you a quality selection of addons without connecting to these sites.
If 'name of addon' comes with a free distribution license (such as GPL, BSD, public domain, etc), let us know and we should be able to get it back online relatively quickly by hosting it on our servers.
Otherwise, if you know the author of 'name of addon', you may wish to get in touch with them and see if they would like to host their AddOn(s) on our servers, and have them contact us if they do.
In the meantime, that you, for you patience and understanding.

Sounds to me like Wowmatrix is doing what a lot of people were complaining it wasn't doing.
It is giving credit to the author by listing their name.
It is making it easier for users to donate to the author by adding a "donate" link for the addon. Not all addons have that link in wowmatrix so I'm not sure how they configure it. I saw that Auctioneer has the link.
It is showing version numbers of the addon.
I've read several times that Wowmatrix modifies the addon's files. I just spot checked several of my addons and the .TOC file appears to be the author's original file.

Is is possible that Wowmatrix has been addressing the "author community's" complaints and making changes to their program?

Would someone who actually saw changes made by wowmatrix to an addon's code, check a newly downloaded version of the addon (using Wowmatrix) to see if the changes are still being made?

PS: Even though I have used Wowmatrix for over a year, I still visit Curse and Wowinterface several times a week. Curse and Wowinterface have unique information that I want to read and addon's I want to download directly from their sites. I do understand why Curse and Wowinterface do not like what Wowmatrix was doing and I agree that wowmatrix was basically getting free bandwidth. The purpose of my post was to share information on what I see as a wowmatrix user.

Last edited by sconley : 04-19-09 at 07:50 AM.
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04-19-09, 11:47 AM   #602
Neuro
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I don't think anyone has an issue with WoWMatrix hosting addons, as long as they have the legal permission from the author.

Personally I don't think their business model can sustain it, but that's their concern.
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04-19-09, 12:26 PM   #603
Petrah
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Originally Posted by Neuro View Post
I don't think anyone has an issue with WoWMatrix hosting addons, as long as they have the legal permission from the author.

Personally I don't think their business model can sustain it, but that's their concern.
It states on the wm faq page that if an addon author is worried about bandwidth that they will host the addon for them (too little too late if you ask me). However, wm has pretty much burned too many bridges with the addon authors of the community, so I don't see addon authors rushing to them to host their addons anytime soon.
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04-19-09, 12:38 PM   #604
Tekkub
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Originally Posted by Silenia View Post
so I don't see addon authors rushing to them to host their addons anytime soon.
I know of at least one that did, but frankly it didn't surprise anyone when he did, nor it did surprise anyone when he didn't leave "gracefully" to stay on good terms with the site.
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04-19-09, 12:39 PM   #605
Luciant
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just super

i never knew that WM caused problems, and so I've used it without any issue for a long time.

Now that i do know it causes problems im all to happy to use an official client-- but therein lies the problem,

the official clients BLOW.

Ok let me rephrase that, the curse client is actually not that bad, but some of the best addons I use are not on curse, but wowInterface... so if wowi and curse are somehow partners as the post says they are, what gives? Why can't I use the curse client to update the addons i get off of WoWI?

WoWI is really the only site i go to to find new addons as i dislike the curse website layout (most of the addons on that site dont even have images... lame). So its frustrating that they wouldnt work with their 'partner' curse to allow users to update their addons with the curse client (or vice-versa). And its pretty annoying to have to use two different clients.

basically what im saying is that I'm glad you guys were able to stop WM from leeching your sites, BUT it was kinda crappy of you to not offer an official method of updating addons (from both sites, since they are 'partners') through and easy to use client (even if it has adds) before doing so.
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04-19-09, 12:56 PM   #606
Petrah
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Originally Posted by Tekkub View Post
I know of at least one that did, but frankly it didn't surprise anyone when he did, nor it did surprise anyone when he didn't leave "gracefully" to stay on good terms with the site.
I'm sure there is probably more than one addon author who did. But I was referring to the addon authors as in a huge chunk of them.
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04-19-09, 01:02 PM   #607
Cairenn
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Originally Posted by Luciant View Post
< snip >

... so if wowi and curse are somehow partners as the post says they are, what gives? Why can't I use the curse client to update the addons i get off of WoWI?

< snip >

BUT it was kinda crappy of you to not offer an official method of updating addons (from both sites, since they are 'partners') through and easy to use client (even if it has adds) before doing so.
We aren't partners. What the post says is that we worked together to come up with a solution to our mutual problem of WowMatrix using our respective bandwidth without compensating us for it.

For the main point of your question, though, we are working as quickly as we can to get our new updater out the door. I, and others, talk about it repeatedly throughout this thread, and in a few other threads on the site. I wish we had been able to wait until our updater was ready, but we couldn't. =/
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04-19-09, 01:18 PM   #608
Luciant
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Originally Posted by Cairenn View Post
We aren't partners. What the post says is that we worked together to come up with a solution to our mutual problem of WowMatrix using our respective bandwidth without compensating us for it.

For the main point of your question, though, we are working as quickly as we can to get our new updater out the door. I, and others, talk about it repeatedly throughout this thread, and in a few other threads on the site. I wish we had been able to wait until our updater was ready, but we couldn't. =/
ahh ok, i mis-read the post sorry.
In any event, if you worked with curse for that is there any possibility of somehow allowing mutual sharing of access within each others clients to addons? So that if someone using the future wowi updater can update curse addons or someone using the curse client could update their wowi addons?
it would be a great and very helpful feature.
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04-19-09, 01:22 PM   #609
Tekkub
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Originally Posted by Luciant View Post
ahh ok, i mis-read the post sorry.
In any event, if you worked with curse for that is there any possibility of somehow allowing mutual sharing of access within each others clients to addons? So that if someone using the future wowi updater can update curse addons or someone using the curse client could update their wowi addons?
it would be a great and very helpful feature.
As has also been said, the WoWI updater is being built on a system that can easily take "modules" for other sources. I wouldn't expect WoWI to provide a Curse module directly though.
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04-19-09, 02:03 PM   #610
Meeza
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Wouldn't it just be easier and much simpler to create a updater that simply notifies you of neccesary updates and just links you there. That's honestly the only reason I used WM anyways, to see if i need to update, then I would use the links to go to the site and manually download them. I think a lot of people dont actually need the updater to do literally everything, but enough so they always have the latest addons. It's just the process of going through every single addon page and using the actual sites is a drag. Not so much WoWI but curse is a headache.
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04-19-09, 02:10 PM   #611
Tekkub
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Originally Posted by Meeza View Post
Wouldn't it just be easier and much simpler to create a updater that simply notifies you of neccesary updates and just links you there.
This is actually a wonderful idea. We'll have to see if I ever have the free time to do it.
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04-19-09, 02:34 PM   #612
Luciant
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Originally Posted by Meeza View Post
Wouldn't it just be easier and much simpler to create a updater that simply notifies you of neccesary updates and just links you there. That's honestly the only reason I used WM anyways, to see if i need to update, then I would use the links to go to the site and manually download them. I think a lot of people dont actually need the updater to do literally everything, but enough so they always have the latest addons. It's just the process of going through every single addon page and using the actual sites is a drag. Not so much WoWI but curse is a headache.
while there are many of us that would be able to do that, i know a bunch of players that a retarded when it comes to installing addons, they NEED a client such as the curse one to install and update addons
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04-19-09, 03:07 PM   #613
Tekkub
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I know I'm being an elitist prick when I say this, but if you can't install an addon you shouldn't be using it in the first place.
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04-19-09, 04:29 PM   #614
Kaizen
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Yay,... when will wowinterfaces updater be,. updated?...
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04-19-09, 05:20 PM   #615
Shukaro
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Wow, way to go. Congrats on making people trudge through a web page for the addons they want to use. And don't try to say that they could use the Curse client, it's probably the most buggy program I've ever had the displeasure to try.
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04-19-09, 05:22 PM   #616
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Soon. It has just a couple more kinks to be worked out by its developer, who is coding it in his free time, for free, with work and school and other projects on his plate as well, before it will be released as a beta. See this thread for more info: http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=20417


@ Meeza and others:
Check out this site: http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/
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04-19-09, 05:41 PM   #617
Meeza
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Originally Posted by Seerah View Post
@ Meeza and others:
Check out this site: http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/
That's actually quite an interesting project, yet again I'd have to actively look for updates, my vision entails a stripped version of WoW matrix that scans your folder, scans the sites, but if an update is found it doesnt leech bandwidth instead, it provides an easy link to click so you can be sent right to the addon page. This does mean you'd have to download the addon from the page (which in my opinion solves a ton of problems, the providers get ad moniez, users know when *their* addons are updated). But as others mentioned if you can't install an addon and are too stupid or lazy to read up on how to do it, then they probably dont need addons to clog up their gameplay anyways.

The cool thing would be, curse and WoWI could technically work together on keeping it updated, as it would basically eventually link back to their page, and depending on the addon I could see a user being presented with 2 links, 1 to WoWI and 1 to Curse, and the user depending on their preference can go to either.
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04-19-09, 06:09 PM   #618
Cin
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I've been using Wowmatrix for some time and, honestly, loved using it. I didn't know there were any issues. I can't use the Curse program, it doesn't work for me (I'm on a Mac, running OS 10.4....which, I'm guessing, is why). The current Wowinterface program doesn't work for me either, and I'm not sure if the new one will. Updating my addons now is time consuming and, quite frankly, a pain in the ass. I'd rather be playing my game. I understand the issues need to be addressed, it's just too bad a better solution could not be found.
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04-19-09, 06:37 PM   #619
Yhor
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As I was looking through the site for something (it's a secret ), I found something pretty interesting that may help people out. One thing though, it requires .Net 2.0 framework... so it won't be for everyone (Windows only?).

Anyway, it's an addon manager that (apparently) it's main function is to let you know which addons -need- to be updated. It has other features as well, but anyway..

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...wmyAddons.html

Looking at the comments, Mars says it is working, as of today. Hopefully this will help a few people out.
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04-19-09, 08:26 PM   #620
Vyper
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Originally Posted by Yhor View Post
As I was looking through the site for something (it's a secret ), I found something pretty interesting that may help people out. One thing though, it requires .Net 2.0 framework... so it won't be for everyone (Windows only?).
In theory the .net framework is available on Mac and Linux, through the Mono Project (http://mono-project.com/Main_Page). Of course, I haven't looked to see if the source is available for that program (it would still need to be compiled to a Mac/Linux binary).
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WoWInterface » Site Forums » News » WoWInterface and Curse working together to help protect authors and other site-users

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