Shoutbox

I'm sorry, I may be missing something here... You're trying to use that site to "prove" that Patchou is a "c2media officer"... Nowhere on that page can I find anything stating that. Just his name/address listed with a few others.

Also

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THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL RECORD

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raises some suspicions too...

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Originally posted by MenthiX

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Originally posted by Atribune
As for him not being a company officer why do they list him as one?
http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?a1=DETFI...SECURESOFTWARE&r5=

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Interesting, I quote from the site you linked to:

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Status
INACTIVE

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Any other real proof?

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I believe that is called "shutting the door after the horse has bolted".  His status can be changed back to Active, or Patchou can resign as a director and come back again, at any time. The fact remains he is there.

The records of "SECURE SOFTWARE, INC." that supposed to proof Patchou is a director of LOP and/or C2Media is actually a very old rumor.

Patchou commented on the about 2 years ago on his old site:


Jason and Alex are indeed people who work (are directors of?) LOP/C2Media, but Patchou being a director of a company that also have directors that work for LOP/C2Media does not mean Patchou is director of LOP/C2Media. Like Patchou explained ages ago in the screenshot above... The company was set up together with the people from LOP to manage business. With business you can think of things like about 6 webservers which are used and maintained for Plus!, managing the customized adware package which is made to be less intrusive, managing the ad network with ads that will show through the Plus! sponsor. If you want to legally do business with other companies, certainly in the US, you will need to be registered. Jason and Alex as his business partners helped him with it. This does prove there is a strong connection between the people from C2 and Patchou, but that was never a mystery or secret. But it does not say/proof Patchou is in charge/a director of LOP/C2Media, or that he earns anything more from LOP/C2Media than he does earn from the ads served by the sponsor package in Plus.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
As for the sponsor, which I'm sure was the main subject: the sponsor was and always will be optional and is never ever forced upon the user. The two choices in the setup are extremely clear. Way more clear than what software from MS itself presents to the user. (...) As for what the sponsor actually is: it is adware, yes.

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That begs for the question:  for what reason would someone, knowingly and with full understanding of what they are doing, opt to install adware on their system?

Adware has no benefit for the user, only downsides.  If nothing worse, it will inundate the user with ads, as well as consume some system resources.  Some adware may carry with it fewer downsides and risks than other adware, but no adware comes with any desireable functionality whatsoever.  It is logical to conclude that given the choice (which I agree Messenger Plus! installer offers), no fully informed user would elect to install adware.

If no one ever installed the adware, then I would imagine C2Media would have called the deal off.  They have not, so there must be people who install it.  That brings us back the original question.  Why would someone do that?

I strongly suspect the answer is they are not fully informed and do not fully understand what it is they are opting for.  Whether there is anything else Patchou can do to educate them ("Warning!  Choosing this option will result in reduced system performance and obnoxious ads!" dialog box comes to mind)  is a different question, but I suspect most of the people out there who installed the "sponsor" did so unwittingly in that they either were negligent and not paying attention, or did not understand what would come with it.  When they later experience the effects of the adware, they may not even link it to Messenger Plus! and the choice they made during install.

Ideally, a company like C2Media would not exist as a lawful enterprise and we wouldn't even have this problem. 

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Nothing is ticked by default, which is something you can't say from certain MS products.

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Has it always been not ticked by default?

The only time I ever installed the "sponsor" was several years ago, completely accidental and caused by not paying attention.  It was also not an original install, but an update -- I was prompted to update Messenger Plus! and did so, although I had several other things going on at the time.  I don't blame anyone for that (and promptly got rid of it upon realizing the mistake), but I don't think I was distracted enough to tick the wrong box -- click through, "Next", "Next", "Finish", if the box was already ticked, sure.

That brings another feature suggestion to mind -- perhaps the installer could be improved to recognize (when upgrading) that the user previously chose to not install the adware and not even offer it. 

There isn't much point in arguing, these misinformed people who have came here with biased views aren't going to admit that they're wrong, we're the experts on this matter and they can't handle that, their heads are so far up their own asses for that.

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Originally posted by Adeptus
Has it always been not ticked by default?

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No, when the sponsor was first added it was indeed ticked by default, but it was quickly changed so it wouldnt be ticked anymore .

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Originally posted by traxor
There isn't much point in arguing, these misinformed people who have came here with biased views aren't going to admit that they're wrong, we're the experts on this matter and they can't handle that, their heads are so far up their own asses for that.

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What bothers me is that those guys are "microsoft MVPs".. i thought they were smarter and would research more for some reason . It's disapointing tbh...

Patchou is the creator of the best addon for messenger plus!, million the peoples have that program, so..i dont care if a lot of people (competition,etc) say bad things about the program or patchou, we know that is not true.

If i wanna a new pc, i need to be informed..and know what i'm buy, that is the same to the plus!.

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Originally posted by Adeptus
If no one ever installed the adware, then I would imagine C2Media would have called the deal off.

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I would imagine that the deal is more of an advertisement of their product. They pay for the privelage of becoming better known and more wide spread throughout the world, as is the goal of any large company/business today. Whether or not people install the product does not really concern them. If they show adverts through popups, don't you think they make money from THEIR sponsors that way?

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Originally posted by Adeptus
"Warning!  Choosing this option will result in reduced system performance and obnoxious ads!"

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Erm, not for me and tbh, my PC isn't exactly top spec

I will stick up for Plus! and Patchou until the end. People should realise that (optional) adware or not, MP!L is not "unsafe" and does not install "malicious" software onto your PC.

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Originally posted by Adeptus
I suspect most of the people out there who installed the "sponsor" did so unwittingly in that they either were negligent and not paying attention, or did not understand what would come with it.

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Exactly our point Adeptus, it is through their own negligence that people install it. Just like people who say "I accidentally downloaded WGA from Automatic Update and now it knows my version of Windows isn't genuine". There is always an option to not install/download something, it's just whether people are smart enough to find it/look for it. In this case, it's fairly easy to find...

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Originally posted by SpunkyLoveMuff
Exactly our point Adeptus, it is through their own negligence that people install it. Just like people who say "I accidentally downloaded WGA from Automatic Update and now it knows my version of Windows isn't genuine". There is always an option to not install/download something, it's just whether people are smart enough to find it/look for it.

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So, you admit that the adware is undesireable by virtually everyone and being snuck onto their systems when they fail to pay adequate attention to prevent it.

I believe you just proved the point opposite from that which you were trying to. 

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Originally posted by SpunkyLoveMuff
I will stick up for Plus! and Patchou until the end.

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Patchou is a nice guy in a tough place (though not without his own choosing).

As for C2Media  and their full "product", however -- I would not urinate on them if I saw them on fire.  It continues to elude me how outfits engaging in such activity are permitted to operate in civilised countries and why we  can't simply shut them down and charge their corporate officers with ten million counts of criminal computer trespass.

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Originally posted by Adeptus
So, you admit that the adware is undesireable by virtually everyone and being snuck onto their systems when they fail to pay adequate attention to prevent it.

I believe you just proved the point opposite from that which you were trying to. 

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No, I think you misunderstood. I have the adware installed and I'm not crying about it. Unlike most adware, this is EASY to get rid of if you decide that you no longer want it on your system. It has an option that, if I may say so, is quite CLEAR about what you are doing. If you do not pay attention that is your own problem as you still willingly clicked to install it. As for doing it by accident/not paying attention, the option to install the sponsor is not selected by default. So unless you just randomly click parts of the screen during the installation process, I don't see how this is possible. My point was not what you seem to have construde it to be. Therfore, I have not proven myself wrong.

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Originally posted by Adeptus
As for C2Media  and their full "product", however -- I would not urinate on them if I saw them on fire.

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TBH, there are worse examples of adware that I can think of. Is it right that these popups get shown presenting themselves as Anti-Virus software etc. When people can prevent serious threats like this, then they can start to crack down on software that generates a few popups.

EDIT: Grammar