This is a plea to Patchou to try to save this good program from a bad rep. 

Your current sponsor (Lop.com) is probably the most hated malware (yes, malware) creator on the internet today.  I definately appreciate that you need to be paid for your efforts and that a sponsor program is a good way to get some funding, but this sponsor could kill an otherwise great peice of software.  Please consider the long term affects of affiliating yourself with this company and it's practices.

For example, when I installed the latest update I decided to allow the sponsor program to be installed since I knew it would generate revenue for you.  However, the next day I found that I had a permanent toolbar, new favorites, a non-existant home page, and several new icons on my desktop.  Annoying,  but I expected some inconvenience from an adware type program.  After doing some research, I've come to realize that Lop.com employs methods that are easily categorized as trojan behavior (everytime I killed the process, it popped up again with a different name) and just not good business.

Shortly after that, I actually contracted a virus on my system (which was promptly halted by TrendMicro).  While I'm not saying that Lop.com gave me a virus, it is quite suspect as I've never just had a virus download itself on to my computer for no appearant reason before.  Since this was the only recent install on my system in the past few weeks, I have to assume there was some connection.

To sum up, I did uninstall and re-install to get the sponsor illness off of my system, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.  While I am an experienced user, I could never recommend this program to any of my friends or family who aren't computer saavy.  This is just not a good thing.

So, please just think about it.

Peace,
- Glen

The sponsor application wont be removed from Messenger Plus!. Before Patchou chose which Company to side with when adding it into Messenger he had a multitude of requests making the most lite version of a sponsor program out there.

Since the beginning of the sponsor there has been many threads created and many discussions held and the end result is always the same. Patchou wont remove the sponsor as he needs a source of income.

As far as the few changes to your computer (permanent toolbar, new favorites, a non-existant home page, and several new icons on my desktop) isn't it better having the choice to install it tho? I mean you go and download Kazaa then you will really see what spyware is. The very first release that had the sponsor application I admit was terrible, it went as far as changing your computer name/domain name, but since then Patchou has demanded they tone it down and they have. The search bar is half decent. The favorites are standard, the home page could just be having a bad day. As far as the Changing filename for the process that hasn't happened to me since the beginning of Beta testing version 3 so I am not sure what else there was on your computer. But you could try running an Spyware Remover like Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search and Destroy just to see if you have anything left on your computer.

For the not so computer saavy people you can create small application for them that uses the /SilentInstallNoSponsor parameter that will only install Plus! not the sponsor.


Cheers,
Wow what a long post.

Matty is entirely right... my sponsor is very farfrom being the worse thing available on the net today.. it's actually pretty mainstream advertisement and some antivirus categorize it as Trojan just to make people afraid and buy their product (that's the sad truth, just check the real definition of a Trojan and you'll understand).

The sponsor package I have just changes your home page, adds a few icons on your desktop (not much) and add a search bar in your Internet Explorer similar to the one Yahoo, MSN or Google provide... there's realy no need for concern. I'll gladly remove my sponsor the day people will consider software development as a job (yes, it's becoming that bad) and will start paying for the software they use. Until then, an optional adaware package is, Ithink, the best solution by far.

Hi Patchou,

Like I said, I appreciate your need for a sponsor program and I would not ask you just give away your efforts.  I'm just asking you to consider using a different sponsor, for your own reputation as a quality software developer.

This is no simple adware and it does in fact display trojan behavior.  If you don't believe me, install it, reboot, and check task manager for a process named "iexplorer.exe".  If you do not have Internet Explorer open, that process should not be present, but it is because this is the process that displays the toolbar.  Now, try to end the process and see what happens... 

Another randomly named processes will briefly display and restart the "iexplorer.exe" process.  This is known as "stealth" technology and it is used in many virus and trojan strains.  It simply can not be justified to take control over someone's PC in this manner.

In any case, you have your reasons for using and keeping your relationship with whom you please.  You will do what you feel you need to do and you ultimately will be the person who has to live with your decisions, as we all do.

Peace,
- Glen

the only problem i see with patchous sponsor as it is is it isnt a real toolbar. its kinda something that floats over the bottom of the screen and dosnt let you see behind it (in my experences)

quote:

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Originally posted by lizard.boy
the only problem i see with patchous sponsor as it is is it isnt a real toolbar. its kinda something that floats over the bottom of the screen and dosnt let you see behind it (in my experences)

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A little more information to consider.

I work as a developer for a large financial corporation and I spoke with our support staff about Lop.com today.  It would seem that the many different versions of this little "adware" program have cost the company thousands of dollars in support costs over the past couple of years because it breaks other browser technologies that are needed for business reasons.  I've also come to understand that there are currently talks of legislation and lawsuits by both the US and UK governments to stop many of the practices Lop.com finds acceptable.

What it really comes down to is this...  As a reputable developer, doesn't it bother you to be associated with these types of business practices?

Peace,
- Glen

Well, again, I assure you that the package I distribute in Plus! is not the same kind of package you may have heard about in some web site... first, it is importantto know that my package is 100% "child friendly". There is no porn whatsoever included in it. Secondly, there's nothing wrong with the package.. itdoesn'Tdo anything "trojan like".. a trojan is installed on your computer without knowing it and without displaying any kind of agreement. Then, it sends your personal data to servers that collect it. My sponsor doesn't do that at all. The only thing it does is displaying ads related to your web searches.

I've been installign this package for more than a year now and you can beleive that with the amount of users I have, Messenger Plus! wouldalready be dead if mysponsor was doing the things youthink it does. I am very careful about the reputation of my soft but I can'tdoanything against some site that spit on it because I include an optional waytosupport it. And you can besureof something: I would get the same amount of complaints even if my sponsor was just displaying one advertisement every year It's just the fact that I install someads that bothers people, not the fact that it comes from C2Media (at least, for most of them). I've already searched for other companies providing similar services and I assure you that the best one I found are C2Media: they are very reliable, have a good technical support for developers like myself and react quicly to problems. Your PC won't crash after installing their software, you won't get 20 porn advertisement in the week following the installation and there will be no dialers installed that tried to reach porn services in Africa.

when installing this product i said NO to install any other apps on my PC. so a couple days ago i come back to my pc and ther is icons and a tool bar on my PC with out asking ME if i wanted to install this shit. to me this is spyware/trojan!!!! installing apps w/o my knowledge!!

how do you remove these adds/toolbar???

quote:

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Originally posted by IDLE
when installing this product i said NO to install any other apps on my PC. so a couple days ago i come back to my pc and ther is icons and a tool bar on my PC with out asking ME if i wanted to install this shit. to me this is spyware/trojan!!!! installing apps w/o my knowledge!!

how do you remove these adds/toolbar???

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no i havent installed anything else. i ahvent been home in 2 days. i leave my pc on. i just reinstalled my OS 4 days ago and everything was clean till after i installed mess plus. mess plus worked fine for a few days. i come home now and there is icons all over the place and that stupid tool bar

im not a moron. i know a little about PC's and what not. this is very aggrivating. just the fact that it installed this crap on my pc w/o me knowing is bull shit!

quote:

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Originally posted by IDLE
when installing this product i said NO to install any other apps on my PC. so a couple days ago i come back to my pc and ther is icons and a tool bar on my PC with out asking ME if i wanted to install this shit. to me this is spyware/trojan!!!! installing apps w/o my knowledge!!

how do you remove these adds/toolbar???

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how do you turn it off? i didnt know there was an update for it

quote:

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Originally posted by IDLE
how do you turn it off? i didnt know there was an update for it

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quote:

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Originally posted by Matty.
(but tells you there is a new version)

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Absolutely nothing gets installed automatically or silently. Auto-updates can be disabled in the screenthat notifies you of the update. If you got my sponsor installed it's because you accepted the agreement, there can't be any other explanation, sorry.