I've been a user of Messenger Plus! since 2002. Sure, I grew out of the toys like sounds and abuse of formatting and that kind of stuff, but I kept it for the handy shortcuts, floating contacts, POP notifications, skins to make the windows more compact and streamlined, scripts and, most especially, encrypted logging.
I was somewhat wary when adware first made its way into the installer, but since it was optional, I kept on using the extension, carefully unchecking the option to install it.
Now, if installing it without adware is no longer an option, well, installing it is no longer an option for me altogether.
I'm an IT technician. One of my jobs (and the most time consuming and aggravating, too) is to remove annoying (and increasingly sophisticated) adware from my clients' computers. I'm not going to just cave in and put that trash on my computer just to use a piece of software, even if it's software I like and I've been using for 11 years. Nobody likes adware. Nobody is happy to put up with it even if it enables them to install something.
Look at all those free and clean applications: GIMP, Mozilla Firefox, VLC... those are all applications of good quality that were started with little or no funding and managed to keep going without resorting to displaying advertisement directly on the user's computer. If you have to resort to requiring your users to install adware on their computers, then some very bad decisions have been made along the line in preventing, fixing and dealing with the funding problem(s). Even closed source software manage to stay free in other ways.
What is happening now is hurting Yuna Software's credibility like nothing else, not to mention the product's credibility. The optional adware was a pretty shitty move already, creating your own very questionable toolbar only made it worse; forcing it upon the users is undoubtedly the nail in the coffin.
Sure, I could just check the homepage or default search option, then revert it manually after the install... But it doesn't feel right. Lost credibility also means lost trust, plus the disturbing reports of users having, in the past, opted out of the adware and finding it installed on their computers anyway. It may even have happened to me but the memory isn't clear enough to tell is as a fact.
Long story short, Messenger Plus! is too costly to develop and/or the funding methods are inappropriate (and a serious lack of respect towards your users.) Either cut expenses or change your funding strategy.
Until that is fixed (and if it ever happens,) I'm out.
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![[Image: phorni.jpg]](https://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~b94075/phorni.jpg)
![[Image: emily1.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18983405/emily1.jpg)
