Shoutbox

I can assure you that spreading Plus! via P2P is NOT a good way at all!!!

1) Speeds the spreading? NO, the user has to know it exist before he can download something. So no benefit from here...
2) P2P are FULL, and I repeat FULL of virusses. You never know if the file you're downloading is virus-free...
3) Speeds up the downloading? NO, you still have to download the same amount of bytes
4) Convenience? NO, the user need to have a P2P client in order to be able to download anything from it...
5) Download speed? NO, downloading from P2P is far slower then downloading from a site directly...
6) Available latest version? NO, on P2P there is no way to control/check what the latest version is...
7) User information/convenience/related info/etc...? NO, there is no way that you can replace the informative original website with a P2P download...

and I can go on and on...


Although Messenger Plus! is free, and there is no restricting on mirroring the file. It is NOT recommended to put it everywhere for download. In fact, it is a bad thing for the end user. There is a damn good reason why original websites exist. Because you can always be sure that they contain proper information that the user needs to know, are up to date, and often contain additional important links. All this can NOT be found on P2P networks (and even on other sites for that matter)...

Hence I ALWAYS say that _if_ you're going to spread the file yourself, ALWAYS include a direct link to the original homepage. (as you can guess this goes for websites too, even in general (eg: someone asks you about a certain product, don't give the person a direct link, rather link to the original main download site!))

As an experienced PC user, I simply hate sites and the P2P method, where they only give you the file, mirrored on their own site, without further explaination or link to the main site. If you're lucky, the program in question contains a link to the main site, but that means you have to install a possible out-dated, buggy, infected version first....

To go back to Plus! itself: since last year I'm monitoring/searching some P2P networks for the Plus! setup file. I can tell you that 95% of all the Plus! files offered are corrupted and can do damage to user PCs (because they are bad downloaded in the first place, contain virusses, are incomplete downloads, are tampered with, etc...). To give a nice example of how 'corrupted' the whole system is: every month I download +-100Mb of NEW Plus! setups which I hadn't before, only a handful of them are actually valid and untampered with and most of those are within an archive file which contains other and dodgy stuff. Only very occasionally I come across a decent untampered clean Plus! setup...

Conclussion: no, please do NOT put Plus! on P2P networks, this will by no means help "spread" Messenger Plus!. In fact, it will damage the reputation of Messenger Plus! as users don't have a clue if their download is valid, untampered, up to date.

If you want to help to spread Plus! then spread the link to the main site instead, nothing more!!!



PS: and torrents also don't solve a thing! a torrent can easly be tampered with or be based on a corrupted file as well, there is absolutely no difference between torrents and other P2P methods for that matter...