There are two kinds of people who like to browse:

A) Those who share a few files and think everyone else has as little as they do. They think unless everyone shares, the network will collapse. News for you: There will always be leeches, and they will download whatever piffling files you have from someone who realizes that sharing does not mean trading.

B) Leeches who browse and download everything you have while still sharing nothing.

Now, there are also two kinds of people who want to disable browse:

A) People who share TONS of stuff and don't want to possibly face legal repercussions from sharing. These people are the lifeblood of the network, and they are also the place those new episodes you love so much come from, alawson. These people know what the word "sharing" means, and don't give a damn what's in your shared folder. This is also why emule has many many times the releasers that Limewire does.

B) Leeches who don't want you to know they're not sharing anything. These are greatly outnumbered by the leeches who LOVE browse though, since disabling browse and not sharing look pretty much the same on the other end, so the leeches don't care.

Basically, making browse host optional in LimeWire would CONTRIBUTE to the health of the network, since it would attract people who would otherwise not run LimeWire, and these people are legion. Even Edonkey, a network with FORCED SHARING, allows you to disable browse.

Eventually, someone will make a fork of LimeWire that has the option. I encourage the LimeWire devs to nip this in the bud before that happens.

One last thing for all you subgeniuses out there:

"I'll share with you if you give me something" - this is not sharing.

"Here, try this. No obligation." - this is sharing.