Heya,

It's not every day that such an event occurs: my dears friends, I am now a Microsoft's Most Valuable Professionals in the Windows Live Developers group. More information about MVP awards can be found on the Microsoft's web site and my personal profile can now be found here.

Thank you very much Bill, the year 2007 already looks much better now! . You can count on me to continue promoting Windows Live and its surrounding technologies. Messenger is here to stay after all, and so is Messenger Plus!.

Patchou

Congratulations on the achievement! Nice to see Microsoft has finally made you an MVP.

Congratulation thread just for you

* Sunshine giggles...beat you to posting the news...

Congrats

Go Patchu

keep it up

Edit: everyone bow to your master

Congratulations (=

Congratulations Patchou

Congratulations you've earnt it

As I said on the other thread... congratulations!

nice, you deserve it

Congratulations, you deserve it

pook pook.

well done patchou

Congrats Pitcho! \o/

Congrats Patchou

Great job Patchou! Bout time you get it... you've earned it!

Congratulations!

quote:

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Originally posted by Patchou
Messenger is here to stay after all, and so is Messenger Pus!.

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POOK POOK!

Nice one, i already thought you were an MVP

anyway, you still need to bribe microsoft to get your beta testers onto connect managed beta they declined me once again ¬_¬

Congratulations, you earned it.

Congrats Patchy, you deserve it!

Congratulations Patchi

Congratz

But I get with ur links: Sorry, the page you requested is not available.

Congratulations Cyril, seriously!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats Patchou

Well done, you deserve it!

Congrats!

Congrats Pitcho!

woohoo congratulations

Woooooooootage, gongratz

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure you must be very proud of it, even tho you deserve it!

Keep on the hard work!

that is awesome, your work finaly payed off

Congratulations!!

quote:

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Originally posted by Plik
Congrats Pitcho!

---

wow... that rocks.

congrats patchou

congrats, now you must come here to the mexico meet : <>

Congratulations, Patchou!!! You really deserve it.

Congrats man, that's an amazing achievement


I bet one of those would look good on my CV... bah, too much effort

congrats Patchou

some very very deserved reconition...

keep up the good work... and the good spirit...

Congratulations Patch, you certainly deserve it
This is a ploy to get you to promote Live products i tell you, err wait, you'd have done it anyway since your product is linked to theirs. Bleh im only kidding.

Here is the recognition from Microsoft's side for the countless hours work youve put in

JK is felicitate again. Congrats Trekie. <3
And cookie recieves yet another MVP

I couldnt find any other MVP's from the forum. Sorry if i missed any of you out
Congrats to all

(no sarcasm implied)

Happy to hear that! Congrats Patchou!

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
I couldnt find any other MVP's from the forum. Sorry if i missed any of you out

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Congratulatios Patchou

and No logo ?

i think a MP!L logo there would look sexehh

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
I couldnt find any other MVP's from the forum. Sorry if i missed any of you out

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DX and ES, but they're being removed as far as I know

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Congrats pitcho

quote:

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Originally posted by thekid
This dude is another MVP from our forums

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congrats!

very good work
you da man

Siebe Tolsma (creator of Bot2k3) also is MVP now .

quote:

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Originally posted by MenthiX
Siebe Tolsma (creator of Bot2k3) also is MVP now .

---

it always tells me the requested page is not available, strange

Congratulations Patchou, well deserved

You will always have my thanks you derserve it

Congrats Patch.

Trekie needs to add a profile to his new .......urm ......profile.

Congrats Patchou!
Some very rude people continue to say you do not deserve this MVP (see here) but everyone should see that you were given this award because of your hard work on Messenger Plus! and strengthening the community not for other dodgy reasons.

<insert valspy Patchou "go you" image here>

edit: err pasted something wrong here sorry

Congratulatios also from me, got the news from the beta newsgroups. However, I am sorry that some people complain about this honor, mentioned above and here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?co...&source=rss_news50
Anyway, in my opinion a great reward for your work which you have done over years.

Greetings
Tom

CONGRATS!!! PATCHOU

Shame that you've now lost it.

Congratulations Patchou, I'm really happy for you !

quote:

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Originally posted by traxor
Congratulations Patchou, I'm really happy for you !

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tom1807
Congratulatios also from me, got the news from the beta newsgroups. However, I am sorry that some people complain about this honor, mentioned above and here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?co...&source=rss_news50
Anyway, in my opinion a great reward for your work which you have done over years.

Greetings
Tom

---

Argh, the "oh noes, Patchou can't be MVP because he makes money" people won . Still an MVP in my eyes.

quote:

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Originally posted by MenthiX
Argh, the "oh noes, Patchou can't be MVP because he makes money" people won . Still an MVP in my eyes.

---

In my eyes too...

And even also top notch MVP! (Most Valuable Plusser!).

Patchou deserved it, and he deserve to keep it. Dodgy MS.....

I think that critics are based on politics and protocol and moral procedures, it's not actually connected to the real acchievement of Patchou, and as a consequence should not be actually taken into account here.
They should also take into account that the software is still free and it offers one of the greatest features involving IM. MSN without it, simply sucks. Once you get to know MP, you just can't live without it.
Security specialists can complain and they may have some point, but Patchou worked for so many years and he and the millions of users worldwide know how hard his efforts were to continue developing it and keep it for free. Without a sponsor, there wouldn't exist a MP.
Other addons take more than a year to upgrade to a new version and even to evolve in such a beautiful way MP has. I don't think critics took this into account and I think they should.

Anyway, having the MVP or not, that just doesn't change the acchievement at all. MP doesn't really need MVP to be what it is and to continue evolving. I'm sure Patchou must be frustrated and kind of pissed because of this situation but hey, Microsoft doesn't give you the key to heaven, no one needs that MVP shit. It's nice, but that's all. Patchou does not need it at all, he won't gain more popularity or profit from it, because he has us, his loyal followers And nothing's gonna change that.

The sponsor is the only think that keeps this addon free for everyone worldwide. Let's just suppose the sponsor was taken out from it. Would he still be worth the MVP? If the answer is YES, then criticism is useless because it would clearly show that the software is worth the honor.

In the end, let's just suppose that Microsoft pushes Patchou to make his software free from adware or sponsors but, should also be discarded from the freeware software list; which irrevocably means we would have a shareware software or even an "activation-ware" software, like >=Office11 or Windows itself.
Now this would be a new situation where Patchou could wonder what's for the better, to have a non-freeware software which specialists declare worth the MVP or to have a adware/freeware ready to the community composed by countless users.
What has more weight here? I think the answer is clear.

PS. And besides, this is more serious:

"Microsoft has had an ugly week on the anti-spyware front. On Thursday, it was revealed that new antipiracy measures in Vista and Longhorn will disable Windows Defender, the portion of the operating system designed to block viruses and other malware, if the company cannot verify that the operating system installation is legitimately licensed."

What do analysts and security specialists have to say about it?

* albert points at sig.

quote:

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Originally posted by alby
* alby points at sig.

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quote:

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Originally posted by alby
alby points at sig.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Voldemort
[joke=lame]
for those people joining just to bitch:
MVPs(excluding plus members): Most Valuable Pieces of Shit

**must** take as a lame **joke**
[/lamejoke]

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Stigmata

quote:

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Originally posted by Voldemort
[joke=lame]
for those people joining just to bitch:
MVPs(excluding plus members): Most Valuable Pieces of Shit

**must** take as a lame **joke**
[/lamejoke]

---

Cookie, TReKiE and myself are MVPs
I dont find it funny

Only kidding, im not a MVP

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Sorry dude, guess having such sponsor doesn't pay off afterall....

Continue with your work though and remove sponsors,  might get lucky again...

quote:

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Originally posted by ado_civon
Sorry dude, guess having such sponsor doesn't pay off afterall....

Continue with your work though and remove sponsors,  might get lucky again...

---

quote:

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Originally posted by traxor

quote:

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Originally posted by ado_civon
Sorry dude, guess having such sponsor doesn't pay off afterall....

Continue with your work though and remove sponsors,  might get lucky again...

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You know nothing, so don't make a fool out of yourself.

No sponsor = no Messenger Plus! Live = You'd come moaning that there's no Messenger Plus! Live = irony.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LEE123
I'm not bashing his program - it's amazing code, and I congratulate Patchou on it. I just don't think he can expect an MVP for bundling adware with it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

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Originally posted by LEE123
I'm not bashing his program - it's amazing code, and I congratulate Patchou on it. I just don't think he can expect an MVP for bundling adware with it.

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for the last time, they didn't remove him because his program has adware. they knew about the adware for ages, and they knew about it when adding him to the team. microsoft only removed him because people bitched.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

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Originally posted by LEE123
I'm not bashing his program - it's amazing code, and I congratulate Patchou on it. I just don't think he can expect an MVP for bundling adware with it.

---

for the last time, they didn't remove him because his program has adware. they knew about the adware for ages, and they knew about it when adding him to the team. microsoft only removed him because people bitched.

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quote:

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" Cyril Paciullo was awarded with MVP status this year on the basis of his technical expertise and strong community contribution. However, his active MVP Award status was revoked as soon as the extent of the connection between his application and spyware was made apparent to the MVP Program."

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quote:

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Sorry dude this is the official statement from Microsoft:

quote:

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" Cyril Paciullo was awarded with MVP status this year on the basis of his technical expertise and strong community contribution. However, his active MVP Award status was revoked as soon as the extent of the connection between his application and spyware was made apparent to the MVP Program."

---

---

quote:

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Originally posted by MenthiX
Argh, the "oh noes, Patchou can't be MVP because he makes money" people won . Still an MVP in my eyes.

---

Yep, I agree with LEE123.
Especially when she says Microsoft managed the thing in a poor way. Honestly, Microsoft can be a great enterprise, but they make some huge mistakes sometimes that leaves me wondering wether there's a genious or a retard managing it.

Giving you an award and then leaving you without it, I think that lacks of moral. Besides, it's irresponsable. They cannot just do that, they look like a child who made a mistake and doesn't care about the consequences, they give you the award and suddenly they take it from you for free.
I'm sure Patchou is not really going to show Microsoft his deep feelings but I can be pretty sure this kind of attitude from Microsoft hurt him.
It makes me believe that Microsoft reacts/responds to the "community" and to the critics, perhaps Patchou should answer that the same way, according to THIS community

All the way back, LEE123 is "sort of right". Giving an award to someone that "indirectly pushes" (according to critics, or not) spyware to your computer is some kind of mistreating for the novice users who just clicked "YES"/"I ACCEPT" when installing MP. I still hear from people and friends who don't really like to instal MP because of the dissasters that the sponsor did after they install MP, but the thing is that most of them are not even AWARE of the fact that they chose to install the sponsor at all. So here comes the stupid aspect of all this. Clicking NEXT until a software is installed WITHOUT reading anything that appears on the screen is just as irresponsable as giving an award and then taking it out, AS MUCH AS giving an award and then taking into account what the community says about it. I mean, it seems Microsoft sometimes can lack of conviction. And this fact probes it clearly.

I insist, what should especialists and the community say about Microsoft disabling antispyware modules from its operating system just because they cannot stop piracy.

Think about it.

That piece of "spyware" and the nagging screen are possibly the most controversial parts of this great program.

I just think the wording is a little pursuasive and misleading on that screen. Believe it or not, many still don't have a clear understanding of the nature of adware and/or spyware and like many more never developed a habit to read the 1000-word license agreement, but by good intents they probably don't want to "refuse" to give their support. Such strong word and once the consequences strike, I could easily imagine the user's reaction.

Right now it sounds like it's the only way to support the program and one should feel guilty by not installing it because they simply refuse to show any support.

Try to phrase it more friendly--I mean, the inclusion of spyware has already given the software a negative tint--say, "I do not wish to install the sponsor programs, but am interested in supporting MsgPlus in other ways" then link to the support page with donations, merchandises, etc...I imagine there'll be better feedbacks on the subject.

Just a perspective...

quote:

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Originally posted by jegar

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

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Originally posted by LEE123
I'm not bashing his program - it's amazing code, and I congratulate Patchou on it. I just don't think he can expect an MVP for bundling adware with it.

---

for the last time, they didn't remove him because his program has adware. they knew about the adware for ages, and they knew about it when adding him to the team. microsoft only removed him because people bitched.

---

Sorry dude this is the official statement from Microsoft:

quote:

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" Cyril Paciullo was awarded with MVP status this year on the basis of his technical expertise and strong community contribution. However, his active MVP Award status was revoked as soon as the extent of the connection between his application and spyware was made apparent to the MVP Program."

---

---

It's strictly not spyware, it's adware, but I like the suggestion about mentioning other ways of supporting Plus. If there was a third option it might cause users to think more about what they're clicking, and think seriously about supporting the software in one way or the other. I guess it depends on how it goes down with C2Media... I gather they refused to drop the nag in the installer once you'd said no once. I don't doubt that if Patchou thinks it's got potential that he'll at least try it to them. He's already done so much arm-twisting to get the package as free from the mainstream LOP woes as possible.

quote:

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Originally posted by fluffy_lobster
It's strictly not spyware, it's adware, but I like the suggestion about mentioning other ways of supporting Plus. If there was a third option it might cause users to think more about what they're clicking, and think seriously about supporting the software in one way or the other. I guess it depends on how it goes down with C2Media... I gather they refused to drop the nag in the installer once you'd said no once. I don't doubt that if Patchou thinks it's got potential that he'll at least try it to them. He's already done so much arm-twisting to get the package as free from the mainstream LOP woes as possible.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by jegar
Sorry dude this is the official statement from Microsoft:

quote:

---

"Cyril Paciullo was awarded with MVP status this year on the basis of his technical expertise and strong community contribution. However, his active MVP Award status was revoked as soon as the extent of the connection between his application and spyware was made apparent to the MVP Program."

---

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Hahaha, dude, it's not so simple. We live in a world of law and politics, and reputation and image. I don't justify Microsoft but unfortunately this is the world we live in. One day people bow to you, the other they crucify you. But keep something in mind, just like they did with Christ, they're gonna kill you, but then they're gonna cry you for ages. This probes the human tendency to stupidity and self destruction. Ok, I think I am starting to focus on trascendental points, even this is also another reality - yet sad - I won't deepen on this topic.

But the truth is that, those security MVP may be judged as people who lack of knoweledge just like you stated yet unfortunately they're the ones who ruled this situation after all, or at least, so far.
Even if MS gave Patchou the award again, it would be pathetic, and if I were Patchou, I wouldn't even accept it anymore. It's quite a shame for a billionary company to move its tail towards certain group of people who decides who deserves the love of the community or not.

In the end, as I said, I won't like more or less Patchou, I know his work, I happily and thankfully use it and he more than anyone knows his software is a great acchievement. MSN would have never been the same without these third party coders who freely offered they creativity to the community. Unhappily, so far, there's no any other way to promote and help MP without it being sponsor/adware.

Now, wether MP is spyware, adware or whatever-ware, I still have people who I know that tells me that after they had installed MP, they system performed awfully. I wonder how this could be explained. I denote, this is not a critic, it's just a doubt, an incognit which keeps me wondering how could it be just a simple coincidence...

Let me first say that I totally agree with your reply.

As for the last thing: a system performing awfully because 'something' is installed, doesn't automatically mean that something is spyware though. It can of course be that... but a system can perform awfully with only installed adware too, or even with an installed program which doesn't even have any connection to adware or anything like that.

(Even Messenger and other MS products make my system crunch sometimes)

The sponsor program, as with almost all adware, calls home sometimes just as it is stated in the EULA. But of course not with personal info. It simply calls home to know what ad must be shown as the ads aren't hard coded within adware. To make sure you don't see the same ads too much, and to try and give you more ads which you might be interested in and less ads you might not be interested in it does of course send some info to the server-program like the stuff you searched for (but to make it clear: all this is anonymously, no personal info is send). This is basicly what every piece of adware does, even what Messenger itself does!!

What the sponsor also does is checking/polling if you or another program didn't accidently damaged it (to a certain extent of course), etc...

Now this phoning home and checking can indeed take some resources from certain low (or already prone to slow down) systems, but is by no means the definition of spyware.

To put it simply, spyware is stuff which, without your approval and behind your back, sends stuff to some remote address. Because of this, spyware also tries to make sure you can't detect it.

The sponsor program is very easly detectable and it even has a clear and perfectly working (if not damaged by a third party) uninstaller. I don't see spyware doing that...

quote:

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Originally posted by traxor

quote:

---

Originally posted by jegar

quote:

---

Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

---

Originally posted by LEE123
I'm not bashing his program - it's amazing code, and I congratulate Patchou on it. I just don't think he can expect an MVP for bundling adware with it.

---

for the last time, they didn't remove him because his program has adware. they knew about the adware for ages, and they knew about it when adding him to the team. microsoft only removed him because people bitched.

---

Sorry dude this is the official statement from Microsoft:

quote:

---

" Cyril Paciullo was awarded with MVP status this year on the basis of his technical expertise and strong community contribution. However, his active MVP Award status was revoked as soon as the extent of the connection between his application and spyware was made apparent to the MVP Program."

---

---

Source of article please?

Microsoft know that Messenger Plus! Live does not bundle spyware.

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Wont repeat myself again, see MenthiX's reply in Congratulations Patchou on becoming an MVP!. Let's just close these topics.

Neowin right now is a flame fest against Patchou's bundle. Here is the most correct post said:


"I like the guy and his work, but I can agree with their decision. You can't have Microsoft endorsing adware/spyware in any shape or form."

Two things:

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
This is basicly what every piece of adware does, even what Messenger itself does!!

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quote:

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The sponsor program is very easly detectable and it even has a clear and perfectly working (if not damaged by a third party) uninstaller. I don't see spyware doing that...

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