Mowgren,

Although BearShare is a useful tool, having to deal with Vinnie's idiotic nonsense makes it more trouble than its worth. Since BearShare and Vinnie are inextricably linked, the best way to mitigate Vinnie's counterproductive crap is to use a different Gnutella client.

Just look at the forums for the other clients. There the dialog is devoid of the bitterness and flame wars which waste so much time and energy in BearShare forums.

I noticed that your have your own site at BearShare.de, a great contribution to the Gnutella community. Why not put a section on your site to help BearShare users transition to a Vinnie/spyware free Gnutella client? I'm sure there are a lot of users out there who would appreciate such a resource. Perhaps even post some reviews of different clients, if you have the time?

Thanks for all you have done to promote Gnutella and help the community!