Originally Posted by Kentarii
This will be a very I-centric post.. but that was the OP's intent, so here goes:
I write addons whenever I feel the stock UI lack something which I take for granted and there is no other addons providing a solution satisfying my own personal needs.
I write addons because I can.
I release addons to the public because I love getting comments about why my addons can't do this and that and how people hate the fonts I use or the features I added or forgot to add 
I release addons to the public because I hope the stuff I wrote can benefit someone else in the same boat as me.
I release addons just to see how many favorites and downloads I can get (disappointingly few compared to Garkin's addons (he's the king)) 
I don't do it to learn Lua... Lua is just another scripting language with some pros/quirks and I don't really see myself using Lua for anything else than writing addons which is a pure hobby. |
If I am truly honest - those are about the same reasons I do it too.
I wrote UCT because it annoyed me that I had to synch my chat tabs manually.
I published it because I wanted to see how many likes/downloads I can get. There is nothing wrong with having pride in ones abilities and I am good at programming.
It has not occured to me to even ask for donations. I am sufficiently motivated by my own arrogance to continue and I think people that ask for donations propably need them more then I do.
There is an aspect of learning involved, but more about non-language parts of the programming. Things like planning and finding the spot where what I wrote is not perfect - but good enough that I do not need to invest more time.