Does your site host your own addons, or ones created by other authors? If you host other authors works, who is allowed to submit addons to your site? How do you handle questions of copyright or license violations?
I only host my own work.
Were you aware that WowMatrix is scraping your site for new versions of your addons, and allows users to download directly from your server without visiting your site?
Yes; In fact, I provided them with download links directly. I wanted to make sure anyone using their client would get my latest addons. One added benefit however was to offload WowMatrix' traffic to Google Code. I knew how their updater brought WowInterface to its knees on patch days. As for users never seeing my site, that's a fact of WowMatrix I had come to live with.
Were you aware that WowMatrix shows ads in their client, but potentially bypasses the ads shown on your site?
I had heard of this, but my site has no ads.
Did Wowmatrix ever contact you to tell you they did this, or ask permission?
[No reply]
Are your addons licensed for free distribution (for example, GPL)?
All of the work is licensed under GPL v3.
If the addons are licensed for free distribution, did they ever ask or inform you that they were providing them through their client? Do they host it themselves, or pull from your site?
They pull directly from my download pages using links I provided to them to always serve up the latest versions.
If your addons are NOT licensed for free distribution, did WowMatrix ever come to you and offer to host your addons on their server?
[Not applicable]
Did you contact WowMatrix and ask them to remove your addons or stop scraping your site? Did they respond? Were your addons removed?
Even though this question doesn't really apply, it seems relevant that they were quite prompt in accepting my requests for updating their listing. They never took more than a day to make their additions.
Did you ever ask WowMatrix to compensate you for the bandwidth their client uses, or did they ever offer? Do they compensate you?
No, I never offered or was offered any compensation.
Have you seen significant bandwidth increase that you believe is due to WowMatrix, especially since patch 3.1?
Significant. WowInterface is really my only exposure to the public, and my download counts there are definitely lower than at my Google Code site (all WowMatrix traffic). Take my _Cursor addon, for example. On WowInterface, it's seen about 10,000 downloads to date. On Google Code, the download counts are more than three times as high. Granted, those are actual download numbers. The traffic from WowMatrix's page scraping isn't shown to me through Google Code.
Do you agree with Curse and WoWI blocking WowMatrix from their servers?
I agree wholeheartedly with what WoWI and Curse have done. It's certainly a shame that the WowMatrix staff left them little choice.
WowMatrix says: "Although we do not agree with their actions, we respect their position in this matter, and so WowMatrix does not currently download AddOns from either Curse or WoWInterface." Do you feel they've respected you, your site, and your addons?
[No reply]
Do you want your addons available through WowMatrix? Do you feel this decision has been influenced by the recent events?
I did previously. Before the 3.1 change, WowMatrix was a vital distribution channel for me, whether I liked it or not. Users love their auto-updaters; nothing will change that. After the change, I still want them listed by WowMatrix for anyone that continues to use their updater. However, I doubt it will maintain its popularity with the approaching MMOUI Minion release.
Do you have any comments you would like to make about the current situation with WowMatrix?
I'm only one addon author, so I follow the crowd. WowMatrix was popular once, and so I accomodated its users. Now the crowd will move to Curse's and WowInterface's updaters, and so I'll likely start hosting on Curse as well as WowInterface and Google Code. I have to prepare for the looming Curse/WowInterface updater wars.