We are pleased to announce that we have finished the first stages of our development to allow addon authors to upload, claim, and manage new and existing addons on SolidICE.

While we have a long list of additions and improvements which we are working on implementing, our current system offers the following features:

• Submit a new addon
• Claim an existing addon
• Import an addon directly from curse
• Upload new versions for your addons
• Upload and manage images for your addons
• View detailed download statistics, accurate up to the minute
• Specific forum for each of your addons
• Generate revenue through Google Adsense
• Instant version sanitization, approval, and availability via Icebox and website

While some of these features listed above are the basic requirements for the system, we are excited to offer others such as the download statistics, Adsense settings, and instant availability of your addon and versions via icebox and the website. Distributing your addon through Icebox is quick and simple, as your users will immediately receive updates with no download limits or throttles.

For authors whom choose to submit Google Adsense information, we will display your ads on 50% of download pages for your addon. An increase to 75% of those pages can be arranged pending the acceptance of additional terms.

To access the Addon Author Dashboard, any user can navigate via the "My Addons" link on the main navigation, or via the "Author Dashboard" link through their user profile. The addon Author Dashboard also provides the same suite of functionalities as the existing user profile, along with those tailored towards addon authors.

Please let us know of any complication, suggestions, or thoughts on this addition.

If you are an addon author, and would like to see a feature implemented, or have an idea on how to improve a current feature, we would be very interested in working toward implementing those ideas.

-Ron

Interesting to see the direction the site is heading. You may yet convince me to install icebox.

Does it make sure not to step on curse client?

I would probably use them at the same time until I decide (someday?) to switch completely to solidice.

I am pleased to hear your interest in Icebox and the direction of the site :).

Icebox and the Curse client should not interfere with one another.

However, It seems that if you update an addon with Icebox, the curse client may identify the addon as "modified" and prompt you to update via their client.

What benefit is there for me to claim and update my addon on this site instead of curse?

Hello Slipjack,

First off, thank you for your inquiry.

The biggest advantage SolidICE will be able to offer is the flexibility allotted to us due to the unique size of our team. Seeing as we currently are a team of two developers, we are able to operate without a large majority of the overhead other larger options may incure. This also allows us to rapidly prototype and develop features which users and authors request. Many of the current features you will see on SolidICE have been directly implemented due to the requests of users, this same philosophy is applied to any and all addon management features. If something is not working the way the addon development community desires, we are dedicated to making the changes that will best suite those developers.

SolidICE currently offers the basics of addon management, however in the near future we hope to implement GIT version control integration, so authors can commit new versions straight to SolidICE without using a single web form. Along with GIT integration, we aim to allow authors to configure their addons to "watch" themselves on Curse. Should your addon be updated on Curse, and your addon be configured to do so, we would import those changes or versions onto SolidICE. Thus allowing authors to only upload their addons to a single site, yet benefit from the user base and profit sharing of two sites.

Going along with our small size and low overhead, is that we are able to provide a much larger percentage of profit sharing to addon developers than other larger operations can afford. Our current system of profit sharing relies on addon authors registering for, or have a pre-existing Google Adense account, and then providing us with their publisher id.

Once we are provided with an authors publisher id, we will immediately begin displaying Google Adsense ads for that publisher id on the download pages associated with addons authored by that user. This system will allow authors to be directly compensated based on page views and ad clicks, rather than based a arbitrary download count. This also directly increases the level of transparency between the hosting site (SolidICE), and the addon authors as authors are able to see detailed statistics concerning their earnings through their Google Adsense dashboard.

Along with an increase in transparency, all authors whom claim or upload an addon to SolidICE, are able to receive compensation, regardless of the number of downloads their addon has received. Authors also receive 100% of the revenue from the direct download of their addons.

Our current plans are to also increase the number of pages which an authors ads will be displayed, to expand to forums and forum posts related to those addons, as each addon receives its own individual forum, and to the detailed overview page of said addon.

While our profit sharing does not rely on download numbers, we track the download statistics of an addon down to the minute. Authors are easily able to see the popularity of their addons through detailed graphs, which will soon be upgraded to update live. Our experience has been that other hosting options were unable to accurately track the download count of our addons, so in building our solution we took extra time to highlight those statistics.

Along with accurate statistics on your authored addons, and transparent profit sharing for all authors, we are able to offer near immediate approval and availability of newly uploaded addons and versions, both via the website and our icebox download client. Within 30 seconds of your new addon being submitted, or a version being uploaded, we will sanitize and make available that addon or version.

To complement the immediate availability of addons on SolidICE upon submission, Icebox users are able to download any and all addons without restriction. Icebox imposes no download restrictions on its users, where other solutions limit their users to 2 simultaneous downloads, and prompt the users to upgrade to reduce the restriction. The entire SolidICE system is designed to provide functionality to authors and users without imposing limitations and pay walls.

I hope I have answered your inquiry fully.

Please feel free to contact me at any time with any further questions.

-Ron

Author dashboard screenshot examples:

Thus allowing authors to only upload their addons to a single site, yet benefit from the user base and profit sharing of two sites.

Profit sharing? From Curse?

LOL, that's a good one.

My addon has seen over 250,000 downloads from Curse, and I haven't seen a single penny.

Also, not really in favor of the whole "exclusively" thing. As an author, I want to give myself the widest audience possible, rather than limit my audience. Not to mention it would be pretty stupid of me to not be on Curse, which is currently the place for players to go to get their addons. This seems like a self-serving move for SolidICE.

Hello CobraA1,

Thank you for your feedback.

My addon has seen over 250,000 downloads from Curse, and I haven't seen a single penny.

This is exactly the kind of situation we are trying to fix. We think we can help, if given the chance.

I would like to bring your attention to the promotion we are currently running until the end of the year: https://solidice.com/forums/544/topic/100-profit-sharing-promotion

Authors can currently receive 100% of the revenue generated from the download of their addons. If authors choose to become "exclusive" at the end of the year, they will benefit from an increased % than those who do not. However, even authors who do not decide to become "exclusive", and host with us between now and the end of the year, will benefit from an increased % of profit sharing, than those who begin hosting after the new year.

Authors now receive 100% of the revenue generated from the download of their addons, regardless of if they are exclusively hosted on SolidICE, or also hosted on other sites.

Please let me know if there are any questions or concerns I can address for you.

Please let me know if there are any questions or concerns I can address for you.

I do have a question, actually, about AdSense - am I creating an ad, or it is I'm sharing the profit of ads that are being hosted on SolidICE?

Edit: Clarification

You register with Google as an ad "Publisher". Once registered with Google Adsense, users create individual ads and Google then provides you with a block of JavaScript code which contains your "Publisher Id" and "Ad Slot Id".

If you were running your own website, you would just paste this block of JavaScript into your code and the ad would display in that location on the site. When you have an ad showing on your website which is provided by Google Adsense, essentially Google is selling that space on your website to advertising or marketing companies. In return Google shows an ad in the desired location, and those advertisers pay Google. Google then pays you for showing that ad on your site.

When hosting on SolidICE, authors merely need provide us with their Publisher Id, and optionally, Ad Slot Id's. We will then display ads which use the authors Publisher Id so that they receive the credit for the clicks and views.

The publisher Id determines which Adsense User will receive credit for revenue generated from a displayed ad.

Authors will be payed directly by Google, and SolidICE will not have access to any information users provide to Google.

This example shows the JavaScript block Google will provide you, including the Publisher Id outlined in red:

Edit: Grammar

In response to your edit.

...sharing the profit of ads that are being hosted on SolidICE?

You are creating your own ads, and we are display them on your behalf. This prevents SolidICE from collecting any personal information about the authors and Google will pay the authors directly. This also allows authors to track the performance of their ads on Google Adsense. Otherwise, authors would not be able to view the performance of the ads and would merely have to "take our word on it". This removes that from the equation.

Edit: Spelling