Looks like Shareaza is gone. :( G1 Networks Do Not Connect!

No, not the fake shareaza that was taken over by the RIAA & MPAA’s cronies, but the REAL one on Sourceforge. What’s more, now that google results have been corrupted by who pays the most, whenever one for the past 3 months (today is 10/18/09) executes a search for “Shareaza” and sorts by latest date, all that one finds is pages and pages of “Shareaza is the best program, if you haven’t heard about it … blah … blah … blah”, over and over again. And even though the dates on said entries are like “March 12, 2009”, the entries are really from 2006 to 2008 … in otherwords: NO RECENT SHAREAZA POSTS! Or, … if they are there, they must be burried 5 pages in.

Also, I would be remiss if I did not point out the following: A specific search of terms focused at “Cannot connect to G1” or “no connections to Gnutella1”, only seems to either bring up general guides, and also posts and articles from around 2006, when I guess that was a big problem. Subsequently, following the suggestions offered in 2006 do not help (I have tried). Furthermore, specifically using F9 and trying to connect to more G1 servers or “ghost white crab” entries does not work either! It seems that Shareaza is either poisoned or broken. I say this because since out of frustration I have found other programs that access G1, G2, and edonkey (ie.: the exact same networks), which work fine. One one of them, I was able to connect to 8 “neighbors”. In the past with Shareaza I was at most able to connect to 4or5 neighbors, and for the past 3 months, only 2 neighbors, which were both G2.

My final assessment is that for now, Shareaza is sick and BARELY ALIVE. I enjoyed it, as I’m sure did many other’s while it was here, but it seems the best option is to search for other P2P alternatives.

For reference, I don’t give a shit about the corporate entertainment interests who are suing everybody. They can all go do coke (like they have been since the 70’s) and sodomize transexual hermaphrodites for all I care (no offense to the hermes). Notwithstanding that, I encourage anyone who participates in P2P filesharing to purchase an item if you like it and it gives you benefit. The reasons are 3 fold:

1) It is hard to understand until you have abundance, but collections of stuff can really overwhelm your life in ways you don’t even understand until its too late.

2) People should get paid fairly for their work. What I don’t agree with is that corporations should dictate and determine pricing for entertainment. One must understand that it costs on average tens of thousands of dollars to make a decent music album, and at least 10 millon dollars to make a decent movie, given TODAY’s ACCEPTED PRACTICES in the entertainment industry. But, that is a topic for a different article.

Suffice it to say, one should get paid for the work they do, and when you listen to, watch, or use peoples’ work you need to feel like you should pay them for their time and effort. You would want the same right? I’m not saying keep the record companies in business, but what I am saying is use downloaded files to “sample” the work, and if you like it and find it useful PAY FOR IT. If you can’t afford it now, either don’t use it then, or put some money aside to buy it, just like you do with Christmas presents, or that new bike or guitar amp.

3) The final reason to purchase stuff that you like after downloading is that you will feel good about yourself and your world will seem more in order. (Kinda hokey, I know, but it’s true)

So, I guess to sum up, Shareaza is almost dead … I would recommend finding a different P2P program, and research it first to make sure it is not flagged as an infected program.

(Check out this related article: PeerGuardian hijacked)