After the Bearshare.net forums has been reset, I'm now very thankfull to know how Bearshare gets his "new bearshare" information and that Bearshare has added a second private feature into the Gnutella Protocol.

The original posting from JD was very friendly, let me continue there.

Hmm, to speak very friendly (I'll try)... I don't think it is a good idea that one client producer takes an open protocoll and adds some unknown features without informing or discussing with the global community about nessecary enhancements. You ask Why?
a) protocoll modifications affect the whole network and all other clients, they have to route them.
b) protocoll modifications should be coordinated or soon every client programmer will wildly add some features. This _may_ (not will) cause into incompability of clients or malfunction of the global gnutella network or simply improves complexity when all clients try to understand which "gnutella slang" an other client speaks.
c) writing new gnutella servants will be very difficult without having all necessary features documentated.
d) you need the other clients, you're not alone. Gnutella is an community, at least you started with that idea, don't you?
e) undocumentated features may open security problems in future. Any future client/proxy/application gateway _has_to_ filter out potential risks, this because undocumented protocoll features maybe used by exploits so they get blocked.
f) a non-productive client war may be started, because one client producer thinks he has to block or ignore features he does not agree with... mabye only because of misunderstanding or an lack of communication. Or does this client civil allready begun?
g) The variety of gnutella clients will be decreased, because the user will not decide for gnutella servant, but for a client (or one client will try to knock out every other competitor). Think about the webbrowser story, will your servant win?
h) Add more here. Do you remember all the problems and discussion about internet technology the last years?

At the end company interests are standing against users interests, is this what is all about? For the interest of users only an open standard will be good, proprietary is for the company interests. Let me play around with fantasy:
When gnutella protocoll will NOT be further developed as an open standard... other ideas like swarmcast or Morpheus will win and all fine gnutella servants (name them Bearshrae or Limewire or Moakella) will be vanished and theire programmers work for Warner Bros or Sony and an alternative money making P2P system.
So maybe cooperation is an possible business concept for Free Peers Inc, Lime Wire LLC, etc? Still name your client "the best" or "the most powerfull" but marketing or egoism won't help...
my suggestion: improve technology by using open standards and make money with usability and the real best client.

Hope you like my suggestion, thx for reading & enjoy your weekend!