Ingame donations for addon work -- allowed?

[Diametra]

If this is how you would broadly write a topic to cover the exchange of an addon for in game gold, ya better go back to the drawing board.

This quote is explicitly written to cover selling accounts, gold, in game leveling etc for real money or the equivalent outside of game.

[Mopar]

It very well may not be what they intended to codify - maybe they did in fact mean to restrict it to purely money. But that is not the way it is written.

If you contract someone to develop an addon and pay them gold for it, then what you are doing is betting that this is what they really meant, despite the wording of the ToU. "Value" means more than just money.

[Diametra]

Agan...you are liberally interpreting this to fit the need. It clearly wasn't written to cover this topic.

[Mopar]

I'm not interpreting at all, just explaining what it says. It's up to Nost staff to interpret the agreement, not me. If we get some clarification from admins on this, that would be great.

But without that, would you take the risk on THIS server of bending the rules in that way? It is the same as the guy who tied a string above his keyboard with an oscillating fan, so his cat would play with it and occasionally hit a key - to avoid going AFK in AV. He still got perma-banned. Or the guy who constructed a circuit with a 555 timer and a solenoid to tap a key - same effect. They broadly interpret a 'bot' to be any kind of construct where the player is not personally playing the account, no matter what it is.

This sets precedent for how they interpret their own TOU. Given that, it is very foolish to assume that they would be taking a lax stance for this specific issue, given the history of broad interpretation of any form of cheating.

[Diametra]

Like Scamp, I would not take the risk. He is asking for guidance. The quote you have provided does not cover the subject.

[Mopar]

Well i will respectfully disagree, but also am interested in guidance on this (since I actually do develop addons).

[candyb]

Mopar>
I've interpreted the ToS and your posts the best way I can, but I still ask you:
If I release an addon (it's coded and ready to download and use) and write something like "donate gold if you want to". Is that breaking ToS? Why or why not?
(this is probably stupid to ask but ->) if I release an addon and people donate me gold WITHOUT me asking for it in any way, is that ok or not?

[Mopar]

It would be up to the Nostalrius staff to determine that.

You've got two scenarios, the first where you ask or infer donations are welcomed, and the second where you don't do that but people send you a donation completely unsolicited. I personally don't think either is a problem with the way the TOU is stated. But I am not the final authority on that of course.

One thing I would note however, is that I think it is very dangerous to accept gold or items in-game from random players. If the person sending you gold happens to be a gold seller, it could look like you bought gold.

[Mopar]

Dear GMs, can you please comment on this topic.

I believe the ToS forbids this. Others disagree. Since the penalty for being wrong in assuming it's allowed is a permaban without warning, we would appreciate a GM or admin comment on this so that we know which is the case.

Thanks!

[Mopar]

Should I bother to continue to bump this thread asking for a GM clarification?
I will assume that it is OK to do this otherwise. As no response typically means it's not worth of a GM response, because it is a silly question to ask in the first place.