1) People like Grandpa who feel the need to wetnurse the network take up way too much bandwidth constantly downloading my HUGE file listing. You want to automate this and build it into the client? That sounds like a good idea... NOT! (YES, I share a lot, and want to disable browse. Wanna bet there's others who feel the same way?)

2) Rude people who download EVERY file I'm sharing at the same time. I realize that it is possible to get a file listing without browse host, but most of these dimwits don't.

3) The RIAA routinely uses browse host to find out what people are sharing. They have harassed people even when they are doing nothing wrong, just for running a filesharing client (99% of the time, there is infringement, but it still sucks to be the 1%).

If people don't want others to see what they're sharing, right now they have ONE option: Don't share anything. Allowing them to disable browse is friendlier to the network than having them share nothing.

And for what it's worth, the only thing that sucked about WinMX was the punks who ran LeechHammer, etc. Half of the people running it USED it to leech and keep people from getting anything from them, and the rest came off with a holier-than-thou attitude, banning people and sending them hostile messages about being a "LEECH!" just because WinMX's browse host didn't work half the time. There's a reason antileech was never built into WinMX, and that is because it's fileSHARING, not fileTRADING. If you want to trade, might I recommend DirectConnect? Most of the servers won't even let you on unless you have gigabytes of content. That's not what I want gnutella to become.

P.S. I know it sounds like I'm giving Grandpa both barrels when he made a polite response, but he's already said these things repeatedly in another thread, and I've pointed out why he's wrong. One more time:

1. EVERY other filesharing client that allows browsing allows you to disable it.

2. EVERY other gnutella client that supports browsing allows you to disable it.

3. Limewire did not even have browsing before 2.5.

Please tell us, Grandpa, how is me not allowing you to see everything I share going to cause the gnutella network to crash down around our ears, especially since browse doesn't work right as it is?