Okay you got me. We dropped the feature temporarily because the upload logic was completely re-written, and it was going to take at least a week to re-implement the web page feature. There are some other improvements that I wanted to make to it (like a Web Publishing Wizard type script component) so that was going to drag it on for more days.

I agree, it was a useful feature for those wanting to self-publish.

I think you misunderstand - the browser download feature that was enabled through the "user web page" is OK, because it was opt-in, and the person who was allowing the browser downloads got something in return. This, we should allow, for the reasons you mentioned above.

But allow *direct* browser downloads, from a link off any web page, without going through the user web site "door page" is most certainly a bad idea.

Well, at least for the Gnutella type downloads. If you really want to serve a file to anybody with BearShare, all you need to do is drop the file in your Html directory and use a URL like this:

http://{ip_address}:6346/{filename.ext}

That always worked, but people don't usually put their shared files in the Html directory.