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09/22/18, 02:05 PM   #15
zgwortz
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 23
Originally Posted by Dolgubon View Post
They don't. Seriously. We've been trying to get ZOS to either change or remove that out of date thing, because it's inaccurate and misleading.
No? Why do I get multiple UI Errors whenever I turn on Out of Date addons, then? And that's *with* me using Minion regularly to update all my addons. I can just imagine how many errors might pop up with a user who hasn't been doing that who then turns on Out of Date addons?

Yes, many addon authors are pretty good about updating their addons and fixing the bugs which happen when the API changes, and release their updated addons as soon as the update hits the servers, but many DO NOT. The last time I had Out of Date addons turned on when a major update hit (The Morrowind release, I think), maybe 5 addons were up to date, and half of the rest seriously broke - popping up UI errors in the middle of combat and all kinds of other times, and I couldn't even get into my inventory. I've never turned on Out of Date addons since, except to prove to myself there were *still* addons in my list which caused errors.

I have several friends who run all the time with Out of Date addons because they believe they need addon X to play. I'm constantly hearing stability issues with the game from them when the game has a significant update - including some actual game crashes, and 90% of the time when they investigate, they find some obscure out of date addon which is causing the problem.

(Up to date addons can have stability issues too, but they're far less likely than out of date ones...)

So it's wishful thinking at best to believe that everyone can turn on Out of Date errors without any worries.

Originally Posted by Dolgubon View Post
You're right. We don't do it purely for ourselves. It would be much easier to simply keep the addons we make private. Settings? No need if it's just for myself. No need for a UI, bug support, and more. We release it because we want to help make other people's lives easier. It doesn't mean we want to or will bend over backwards to satisfy entitled users.
Providing the libraries in your addons isn't "bending over backwards". It's releasing a program. Imagine if ESO came with installation instructions which included downloading a bunch of libraries and installing them manually. That's effectively what you're doing. Minion was created to make it easier to install addons -- and you're canceling out all of that advantage. You're NOT making people's lives easier if they have to enable out of date addons and download and install a bunch of libraries *just* to make your addon run.

I fully understand that it's hard to do this. And I appreciate all of those efforts, truly I do. I don't play often enough or have the time to properly release or support my own addons, which is why I never released them. And that's the fundamental difference here between our points of view: If I *did* release my addons, I would feel a responsibility to keep them up to date and fully working - or to pass them on to someone else to maintain. And that would include making them work for people without going through hoops installing standalone libraries or enabling out of date addons. I'd feel the same responsibility for an addon, or a program I wrote for pay, or any of the other code I've written and released to the public.

And yes, you might consider me an "entitled user", even though I'm actually not asking any of you to do anything other than avoid bad programming practices. I just hope others who are reading this might give some thought to the impact of their actions and take some responsibilty for them instead.
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