Let me make myself perfectly clear:

1) We are not out to hurt Gnutella in any way shape or form.

2) Our number one goal is to offer as much protection to as many children as possible.

That said, we did not release a product without trying to engage the user community. In these forums, there have been some good ideas and a lot of criticism. Good, I appreciate that. In emails received from Gnutella users (from those we could figure out) about 20% agree with propagation block. About 15% don’t think it is a big deal. The remainder are opposed to it.

Among people heard from who seem knowledgeable, want filtering, and don’t, themselves, use Gnutella, most want propagation blocking. Businesses who want to use Gnutella (and will pay for filtering) favor propagation blocking. For me, that is a problem.

Now, let me also say, we are trying to work with you and get a filter out the door ahead of the competition which may not be so willing to listen or accommodate. There is absolutely no reason for me to be in these forums except to engage and try to seek accommodation.

One of the problems I have as a businessman is trying to find a solution that is free of any coercion, free of threats, free of any conflict of interest. I had hoped for some engagement from the Gnutella companies but received from them mostly diatribes and threats. That’s simply not productive.

So lets get back to my objective of protection to as many children as possible. Lets talk about offsets. So long as the servent monitor windows are in the open and clear, we have a hard time not hiding this information and the only technical way we have found is to block propagation. If the companies were willing to lock those windows with passwords or even honor a semaphore from a filter, then we could come along way towards compromise.

The other criteria, for maximum protection to as many children as possible, is widespread promotion of any responsible filters. Here the companies could help. Here the user community could help. Lets not try to read between lines anymore. You may be suspicious of my motives. Yes, I do want to make money but I don’t need this headache to do so. Our company does very well, thank you. (Yes, we may lose some sponsorship funding if we remove propagation blocking but not if I can put some winning arguments on the table). The goal HERE is to protect as many children as possible. Period.

I’m not a moral prig (or as the previous poster suggested, a fundamentalist). If some of you want pornography that is fine with me. I don’t care to explore reasons, parents who don’t do their job thus it is their fault, First Amendment rights, etc. I care about those things but they are not germane to the fact that filtering is needed now and effectively. I do believe that Gnutella is jeopardized or inconvenienced by some unknown degree if the problem is not addressed. I am trying to do something.

If you haven’t sensed it, I am listening, reading and thinking about what you say. To the Gnutella executive who wrote me to cease and desist, I expect an apology or a clarification, or better yet a good suggestion or two. To the person who sent a package of dog stuff to our office: thank you, the roses will love it. To the rest of you, I need ideas.

Now people, here is a screen shot of the settings window at http://innoval.com/rifilter/screenshot.htm How do we get rid of the second option? Help.

Dan Porter