As some of you know, and despite what others may think I have been strongly against the used of LOP.COM and similar sponsors being included in freeware programs - such as Plus! regardless of whether it's optional or not. I'm endeavouring to raise this issue in a very respectful way, I mean no disrespect to Patchou, forum administration and moderators, to beta testers, to fellow forum members - or to anyone else (including lurkers etc).
I still strongly feel that if any option should be given it should be given at the time of
Download, not at the time of
Installation.
I am working on a new section of my website, and partly it will contain anti-adware and anti-wga sections. I know some of you say Patchou deserves to make revenue from Plus! and that Bandwidth costs money - but there are many other options. Firstly he already has advertising on the website itself, secondly if he didn't have the sponsor there would be many file mirrors who would be more than willing to assist him and take that load off of his server. Also, there are many web hosts who would be more than happy to provide domain hosting in exchange for google ads on his pages - and as Patchou HAS the Google ads, AND he pays for hosting he gets to keep all additional revenue.
I know many people may be thinking "who are you to criticize Patchou's use of a sponsor, you do not understand". I can assure you I have made contributions online for a very long time, and I have several scripts (and possibly compiled programs) I will be distributing from my own website - a site with no ads on it, and no PayPal link.
[Admin Edit]
Paragraph removed. Served little purpose to the thread asides from advertising your site and discussing bypassing copy protection (not only illegal, but a violation of forum rules)
[/Admin Edit]
Here is a fantastic site - with no advertising (except for their sponsor) and all their freeware is clean, and does not ask you to install 3rd party adware. This site has MANY fantastic programs - not just one, and is clear proof there are many other options:
http://sysinternals.com/
And finally Patchou gives you
NO OTHER support/donation options aside from the sponsor program, so is enough enough? "DVD Jon" gives his stuff away because he has a passion for defeating propriety software systems. DVD Decrypter - perhaps the most famous product based on Jon's code - was free with no strings attached.
ISP's sometimes give courtesy calls to customers when they notice their customer accounts are sending SPAM. They will often ask not only that online virus-scans are run, but also anti-adware software such as Ad-Aware or SpyBot is run - Patchou's sponsor interferes with this.
It is time to face facts: those who install the sponsor don't want it on their system. This poll should reflect how people feel about the sponsor. The questions have been worded precisely - you'll notice there's not a "I specifically discourage people from installing the sponsor" as it's redundant. If there is anyone here who encourages their friends or family to install Patchou's sponsor - please reply personally and explain why you do. Because they way I see it the question isn't "do we have a clear
choice" - but if no one (or very few people) encourages their friends and family to install the Sponsor -
who is Patchou to encourage them to?
At any rate, I believe this needs to be addressed, I look forward to your replies;
Daniel
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