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04-16-09, 06:57 PM   #11
guice
A Cobalt Mageweaver
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 236
Originally Posted by Vyper View Post
There are several reasons authors don't like WoWMatrix (this is understanding and recognizing it is an easier way to update).
1.) Simplicity, it is much easier to keep track of things when I know what and from where people are getting my work. Keeping it down to WoWI lets me easily control that.
2.) WoWMatrix often modified addon files before installing them. I have seen several bugs out there associated only with WoWMatrix users, because WM was fooling with the files. From time to time it also distributed old versions, which could wreak equal havoc.
3.) (related to 2) While a moot point now, WoWMatrix was removing addons in-game donation requests. Go figure, some authors didn't appreciate that.
4.) (Possibly most important) It was not an opt-in service. Or even an opt-out. When I create a work, it is my right to determine how (or if) that work is distributed. WoWMatrix took that right away. They provided addons without permission, and ignored authors protests. From my perspective (not WoWIs) this is the worst.

All my works are under the GPL or BSD, meaning WoWMatrix can redistribute at will, but that was my choice, and to me it's precious. Other authors make different choices, and I suspect to them having that choice is equally precious.

Edit: I'm off to dinner now, but I will happily discuss this further later. Hopefully you can see my point of view.
Teeechnically GPL gave them right to modify as well, but I won't go there.

Point 4, the most important one, is due to the nature of how things were setup. I don't why people wanted to opt-out of WM's list. It's how I found and installed add-ons. If WM didn't have it, I request "support" for it, and generally didn't install it. Heck, I've actually intentionally removed add-ons WM didn't "support" in favor of ones they did.
For opting out, this is two sided. One side on WM, naturally. They should have had a way, through their contact form, to opt-out of support. Did you try that route? Did it go on deaf ears with WoWI's attempt to contact them?

Issue 2 and 3 are related. I'll grasp them together; modifying add-ons to change content is bad, with the exception of *user initiated* requests. The only TOC update I knew WM did was "update all my add-ons." This is user initiated request. This isn't WM's fault. Maybe their fault for buggy code, but in those cases you can easily just blame WM for improperly editing your files.
The best part of this here; You can completely drop support yourself! The moment you find a bug that is definite WM related, you could immediately pass the buck, "Sorry, WM edited those files. I can't fix it or support it." Pass the buck. I do it all the time at work. ^_^
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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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