Isn't this pretty much what Carbonite got smacked down for? For making a premium version that *required* you to pay to get access to all the features? There is a difference between solicting donations and making a for pay version of the curse client. I can see this drawing Blizzard's wrath very quickly as it clearly violates their very first rule for add ons. This is clearly a "premium version" of an add-on related service.

"1) Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create "premium" versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on."

Make money through ads or other services. Attacking your product and your customers is poor form.

Was the "Update All" button really that taxing? Is it less taxing than making users click through four or five updates a day? Of course, it doesn't take that much effort to manually click through it, but in a product (supported financially through ads) that centers around convenience, you have assaulted its integrity. What reasonable response is there to the removal of "Update All?"

What incentive is there to offer this product for free when html bookmarks now offer the exact same convenience of your downloader? You should be ashamed of your basic updater package: It now operates with the efficiency of a web browser.

Please either develop a new business model, offer some reasonable advantage to using the updater, or remove it entirely from circulation. Yes: That one convenient button is enough to make your entire package worthless.

 While certainly paid services are certainly acceptable for you to offer, the execution within the downloader was abysmal.

Thank you for taking a step backwards with addon convenience. Your outstanding program has just degraded into second-rate shareware by your own hands. Hopefully, someone will come to their senses and give the users a reason to continue using your downloader.

Lastly: Respectable merchants accept credit cards, "paypal only" equates to a basement operation. Legitimizing this move as a business move is undermined by the lack of professional credit services. As is the rest of this post, this is purely subjective, but I doubt that many people reading this equate "paypal only" to a business. The image of the "business" is reflected poorly, though it does offer some insight into the amount of thought that went into this "business" decision.

I refuse to use paypal...I have been getting spam emails about my account being limited...funny thing is i've NEVER had an account. I have also heard way too many horor stories of ppl getting ripped off through paypal. No thanks not going there....and I do not have a credit card....never have never will they are evil...I pay for my wow account through the game cards.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Caddir

Isn't this pretty much what Carbonite got smacked down for? For making a premium version that *required* you to pay to get access to all the features? There is a difference between solicting donations and making a for pay version of the curse client. I can see this drawing Blizzard's wrath very quickly as it clearly violates their very first rule for add ons. This is clearly a "premium version" of an add-on related service.

 

"1) Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create "premium" versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on."

 

 

The last I checked addons were still free, able to be downloaded via the Curse Client and installed. Addons are and will always be free.

AHHH this thread is full of the attack of the internet lawyers!! AHHHHHH PANIC!!!!

The Blizzard rules actually state that any service RELATED to the addon is against the rules now. So yes, charging for the client is against the new blizzard rules, and therefor can be punished by the blizzard rules if Blizzard deems fit to do so.

 Only time will tell if they let this go or not because obviously Curse doesn't car eas they went through with the premium service.

I'm not going to whine. But I will say that you're likely to make less money by charging than by running a donation system. I'm certainly not inclined to pay $2-5/month for something I could write a Python script to do. I'd have donated though. Not anymore. :P

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Xorlev

I'm not going to whine. But I will say that you're likely to make less money by charging than by running a donation system. I'm certainly not inclined to pay $2-5/month for something I could write a Python script to do. I'd have donated though. Not anymore. :P

Err... I sincerely hope you mean you won't be donating to Curse anymore, not the addon authors...

Also, I guess the only real complaint I have about this whole thing is the "Paypal Only" deal.  I had to shut down my PayPal Account, and I have no intention of opening it again, or ever doing buisness with Paypal again.  COuld you guys maybe get a credit service going so I can just use my card?  That would be appreciated.

bluebrutal, you can already use your card on the PayPal site without having to use PayPal funds or link it to your bank account.  After choosing your subscription plan, you are taken to PayPal where you can choose to log in or just use a card.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by shinynewac

[*quote user="Caddir"]

"1) Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create "premium" versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on."

 [*/quote]

The last I checked addons were still free, able to be downloaded via the Curse Client and installed. Addons are and will always be free.

"charge for services related to the add-on" I'm just interested what does this sentence mean to Curse?

-----

Anyway this debate got way out of hand.

Paypall is evil and people got their accounts hacked…. Lol those people should make accounts anywhere – I guess their wow account is emptied once a week?

Credit cards are evil, I will never own one! OMG why is this even here? I personally hate cash, I never carry it around it, it takes up unnecessary space compared to some credit cards. Cash is evil, if you drop it, someone else can hack you money and use it!! Omg!  If that happens to my credit cards, my bank will refund the money... try to do that with cash!

--------------

Back to the real debate… I loved curse even though a lot of people told me to change to other addon homepages like ace… and now I consider it hard.

I believe curse shot them self in the foot, when they got greedy

Share premium account among family/friends/guild, monetary aspect diminished, however the worst thing, the fuss about all this, as compared to for example quick and easy WOWMatrix still stays.

Poor move Curse.

Has anyone thought that Curse may actually have talked to a legal team prior to making the change?  Don't know personally, but every corporation or company large enough usually consults a legal team prior to releasing anything major like a charging for a service.  I'd be very surprised if they didn't.  Besides, I can still download the addons for free.  Yes, I am an author and realistically do not care one way or the other about profit, but why not encourage more people to author addons?  Nothing wrong with supporting people who support you, right? :)

yes farlin, we most certainly talked to our lawyers before going through with this

@sanktanglia

Just because it's legal, doesn't mean that it was a good idea. Your financial state of affairs was not made clear to your user community, and those that may have been willing to support you with donations are now being alienated because they are being "forced" to pay for basic functionality.

Try running a real campaign for revenue. If PBS can do it, I'm sure an internet savvy organization can make ends meet through donations and ad space. Offering an inferior product for free or at a low cost will always affect your bottom line. That's probably something that should have been discussed prior to moving forward with the premium services in their current state.

What irritates me the most out of this is that I used AceUpdater which was free and never had a "charge" to it.. and then they merged the updater with curse discontinuing the AceUpdater moving most of its fanbase over to the CurseUpdater which was free for awhile... now I have to pay for something that was a free service to begin with no thanks..

I understand everyone has to make money, that Curse.com is not cheap or easy to run... but its still a jerk move... I hope someone brings back the AceUpdater because paying for another service for a game I'm already paying for is not in my budget.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by sanktanglia

yes farlin, we most certainly talked to our lawyers before going through with this

The fact that you needed to talk to your lawyers before going through with this shows that you knew it was fishy to begin with.

Service related to the addons. How are your lawyers going to get around that?

Fact: The Curse Client is a service directly related to WoW add ons.

Fact: Making a premium version of Curse Client that people have to pay to use clearly violates Blizzard's rules. Note where it specifically mentions not charging for services related to add ons.

"Developers may not create "premium" versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on"

Since the Curse staff seems adamant on not admitting they are violating Blizzard's new rule, I will stop wasting my time arguing with them about it and turn this over to Blizzard. Let Blizzard deal with this if they want.

I myself had a feeling that once the "competition" was gone, they would do something like this.  The updater doesn't recognize half of the stuff I use, so I have to update it manually anyway.  Not to mention, why does it run in my system tray when WoW isn't even on?  If it's not auto updating addons, why is it there?  Not hip to that jive.

This is MORE than a donate button.  It's shutting down functionality in order to charge a premium for it.  Seriously, what is next if there isn't enough support for this premium thing... charging for the search function?  A function I have to use anyway because many of the popular addons that I use aren't even on this site nor avalible via the updater? 

  Quote:

Originally Posted by obliterated

2) Does this seem to anyone else like its a work around for authors profitting from the creation of addons (which I do personally believe they absolutely should be given the oportunity for profit individually)? Seems to me its just looking for a loophole.

It is not a work-around. Blizzard stated you cannot charge for your addon or advertise in-game or ask for donations in-game. They did state that you *CAN* do it outside of the game. Rather than just slapping up a "donate" button on every addon on Curse, they have worked out an easier, better method with the authors in the form of a pay-back system.

I don't write addons but I'm pretty sure if I had one on here, and didn't want to be part of that system, I could opt out of it (but then, what sane person would opt out of being paid)