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My problem is simple: Out of Date addons break the game. Not all of them. Maybe not even most of them. But enough of them are out there and do, and some of them break it badly. *Requiring* that your users enable out of date addons to be able to use your own addon is a BAD IDEA, period. You're limiting the use of your addon to those who are willing to risk breaking the game to use it.
I have at least a dozen addons I used to use, but don't use anymore because I won't check that checkbox -- NO addon is so necessary that I need to destabilize my game for it. Yours is now added to the list -- without the libraries included, you've relegated your addons to being out of date no matter how recently you may have updated them -- you may as well never bother updating the API version of your addons anymore because you can't use them anyway without enabling out of date addons.
I *am* aware of the difficulties in updating libraries. I'm a professional programmer myself (for over 40 years) -- I've written over a half dozen addons for ESO for personal use (plus two libraries) over the last few years - and yes, I have to keep the libraries within them up to date to keep them running. It's. Not. Hard. I use GIT as a source control mechanism -- I download updated libraries once, check them into GIT, and run a simple command line script to update all my addons at the same time. If I wanted to deploy them here, I could have that script do *everything* you've described in your addon posts - the changelog can be pulled from the Git commit log, the Zipping can be done automatically, and even the API version in your own addons can be updated with a script. This is all *trivial* if you use even the basic coding practices.
(And if you're *not* testing all of your addons already when a library gets updated, which is RARE, then you're not testing your addons properly.)
So forgive *my* rage at the idea that you think so little of your end-users that you want them to risk destabilizing their game by forcing them to enable Out of Date addons. It's *NEVER* a good idea, IMHO, to do so unless you're a programmer who has a clue how addons work - and most of your end-users are not.
And if, as you say, the addons were made "for ourselves"... then I suggest you do what I've done with mine - write it for yourself and DON'T bother releasing it here for other people unless you're willing to put in the time and effort to support it properly. (Yes, if you do this based on my suggestion, it might get some people pissed off at me, but I'm not particularly worried about that -- I'd rather have a safer addon environment for *everyone*. And sooner or later, other addons to do what yours used to do will appear. Or I'll write what I need myself.)
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