Dr. WTF

From what was stated above, the advertisement was not actually added to bitcomet directly. The ad apparently was a part of the 3rd party flash player that bitcomet used at the time, which is one (or the primary) reason the bitcomet team created the flv player. This is why I'm not sure bitcomet should be considered a 'commercial' application since it isn't being sold and doesn't directly contain the ad. What I am saying is that the flash player that was bundled with it IS commercial since it was the one that actually contained the link, which makes it an advertisement (commercial in nature). So are you saying that the advertisement was added by bitcomet and not the 3rd party flash player? If so, then it looks like I'm definatly not the one trying to mislead people.

Perhaps we can use another product as an example. How about MSN Messenger? will this suit you better? According to Wikipedia, this software is licensed as "freeware" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Msn_messenger Any rational person that has used this has seen a great deal of ads incorporated into it. The new version of MSN Messenger "Windows Live Messenger" has even more ads... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Messenger And is also listed as "freeware" in Wikipedia. I could site examples of "freeware" licensed programs that contain ads to no end. Any reasonable person would also consider the ads in MSN Messenger as being commercial in nature too. I have not used any version of MSN messenger, so can not comment on if it should or should not be considereed as being liscensed as freeware or adware. But if it does contain ads as you said it does then it probably should be considered adware. Although, adware and freeware (as in terms for the license) are not mutually exclusive. Many adware programs can also be considered freeware programs. At this point I'm not really consered as much as what the license says on the article, so freeware is acceptable now in my eyes since freeware can technically contain ads. This is because (1) the ad is now automatically removed from previous versions and (2) nothing since 0.70 contains the ad we are discussing. As with the majority of sites on the web. Do you consider Google a commercial website? It is and is also free to use without any cost or obligation. What makes it a commercial website is that it contains ads, so does lyricsday.com (infact I saw google adwords on it, so defintaly advertisements). I have never claimed that this site is a commercial website. What I do claim is that the flash video for lyricsday.com is an advertisement. While the bitcomet team or any of its creators may not profit off of the ad, the creators of the 3rd party flash player that was included in bitcomet did. Again, I am not trying to push an agenda. Please look at the current revision (as of this writing) and you can see that the issue is covered quite neutrally and accuratly: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=103469788

Most advertising, the creators claim it as 'interesting'/'useful'/'helpful' information. Ever hear of contextual and relevant advertising? Just because an advertisement is useful or related to the product doesn't invalidate the fact that it is indeed an advertisement. Please don't mix in the torrent lists provided with bitcomet, this is another issue. What I am specifically refering to is the advertisement for lyricsday.com I'm at a loss to find anyone that agrees with this. The word "Advertisement" itself is "commercial" in nature. Promoting a service (in this case lyricsday.com) is commercial in nature. Add to the fact that lyricsday.com is also a commercial website and you have a prime example of an advertisement. It is a short video promoting a commercial website, that is exactly what an ad is. If an 'interesting link' to a commercial website isn't an ad, then under your definition, online advertising is non-existant, it would all just be 'interesting links'. I have carefully considered all that you have said in our forum Dr. WTF, and it is clear to me, and all the many members who have contacted me regarding this that you have an agenda, and your purpose is not simply gathering information to improve the wikipedia article. Your initial post here reflects this, as you did not inquire about seeking info for an article, rather claimed to be reporting a bug. You completly avoided and ignored the portion of my post you last quoted. If anyone has a real agenda it appears to be the BitComet staff (suprise, suprise!) who seem to think redefining the term 'splash screen' and 'advertising' is not pushing an agenda. My only 'agenda', is to gather and provide non-biased and accurate information to wikipedia. My initial post was created as a bug report, since it is a bug report. The website claims that the client contains no ads, so I assumed that this was some kind of mistake and some kind of strange bug since several versions of the client do contain ads. Once I got the initial response from bitdave, part of the Tech Staff, who said that the advertisement could be removed by removing the "C:\program files\bitcomet\fav" folder. I then looked inside and saw a folder called 'ad'. The actual advertisment for lyricsday.com is found in "c:\program files\bicomet\fav\AD". As more replies were added it has become obvious that the ad was added intentionally and not a mistake or some type of bug. I do not see where I quoted anyone out of context or tried to mislead anyone. The initial post can always be found right above mine. The only reason I quote people at all on forums is to make sure it is easily understanedable what I am actually responding to. I also do not see how my actions are 'somewhat less then straight forwared and honest', everything I have posted is easily verified by anyone.

Please read the first article you linked to, even the first sentence will do. The key is "which automatically plays". Windows XP MCE does not automatically play or display ads. They only appear after 3rd party software has been added (either by the user adding it theirselves or by it being added by an exploit). BitComet however does automatically display the ads without modification. Advertising doesn't have to be selling anything. Promoting a product or service/product is also advertising. Please read what I have posted above. This is not a "splash screen" under any accepted use of the term: Lyricsday.com is not a product, it is a service. In addition, lyricsday.com is a commercial website which contains ads so it is definatly not a "totally free product of a non commercial nature". That is great that the ads are now removed (and automatically removed from previous versions), although this does not change the fact that these versions initially did contain commercial links to commercial services (aka ads). Again, I don't see why you and The UnUsual Suspect continue to use false terms to describe what is actually happening. Splash screens are logos and/or artwork of the product you are using. They are not links to unrelated commercial products, this would be what is called an ad. Again, it's great the ads are now being automatically removed but this does not change the fact that these versions initially did contain ads. That's great, if the user gave consent for the program to display the commercial "links" (ads). Perhaps when signing up for many websites you check the checkbox that typically says "Yes, I want to recieve interesting and exciting offers via email", but just because the creator of the website considers (or says) the mail is interesting or non-commercial does not change the fact that it is obvious advertisements. Great, although just because you are working on it doesn't mean all the previous versions magically never contained ads.

Thanks, the versions I am talking about were downloaded directly from the BC website:http://download.bitcomet.com/achive/BitComet_0.70.zip http://download.bitcomet.com/achive/BitComet_0.69.zip http://download.bitcomet.com/achive/BitComet_0.68.zip ...through 0.62 ... http://download.bitcomet.com/achive/BitComet_0.62.zip Yes, this is information to help improve the wikipedia article on BitComet. That would be great. If possible could you get one of the developers to post here, or post the information yourself so we could use your response as a possible reference for the article?

I think we have a misunderstanding. Which site is the 3rd party video player coming from? I'm assuming from leechvideo.com, is this correct? If so, then you are right it wouldn't be considered adware for it to display the below video while loading: Although this does not explain why it also shows the video below, which has nothing to do with leechvideo.com. I do not see how you could justify the display of the above as a "splash screen" as it isn't a logo for the flash previewer or bitcomet at all. Nobody, or at least nobody rational, considers this a splash screen. Nobody sane considers that displaying a blatant ad is not adware. If it isn't, then every program you've ever used, that has an advertisement, isn't adware, so the definition loses any meaning.

I didn't say the ads weren't harmless, but the fact that they are there at all makes the statement claiming it is "Clean and free, without any adware or spyware." false, since the presence of any ads makes BitComet adware. Even if they are easily disabled they are still indeed there and automatically played without the consent of the user.So.. is this bug going to be fixed, or is the main website going to change? Or is this issue just going to be ignored and the website will continue spreading misinformation? Just incase you didn't know the definition, adware is : This is clearly what BitComet is doing, even if it is configurable.

I'm using Bitcomet version 0.70 (current stable release) and have also tried versions down to 0.62 and have found that they all contain the same bug, I am using windows XP sp2 if that helps. To replicate the bug, open a torrent and begin downloading. Select the torrent and click the preview button. When the "Task Preview..." window comes up select a file to preview, and click the "Preview" button. This is where the bug shows, when the next window opens an obnoxious, unwanted ad appears (from my experience all the ads are created in Flash). This is clearly a bug because the Bitcomet website states that the client is "Clean and free, without any adware or spyware." Something is clearly wrong here. Either the website needs to be updated or the current stable release of the client sould have this bug fixed. I'm personally hoping for the latter.