... And yet, strangely, it seems being held back by the very developer(s) that make it! :(

There's a huge population out there of people who hoard, and then want to share, their wares. Hundreds of thousands of files. By wares I don't mean the latest albums or films, I mean hard to get information like magazines, ancient documentaries, bootleg music, out of print books, photography collections, artwork scans, ROM collections, maps etc.

Originally (90's) there were BBS, then FTP, then (for music) Napster and Audio Galaxy, then Bittorrent. The anti-pirate brigade got wise to all of these and drove file sharing to the situation it is now of exclusive, invite-only torrent sites.

This goes against the original ethos of p2p file sharing, and necessitates hassles with packaging torrents etc.

Fopnu is/could be the antidote to all this, and yet hardly anyone is using it.

What is needed:

1) Open Source? I'm guessing not, the dev(s) have invested many hours in Tixati and now Fopnu. But "the internet needs it".
2) More interaction between dev(s) and users, there's practically none that I can see.
3) More 'marketing' on social media etc. from devs and users. But this is pointless without (1) or (2) above.

Fopnu could be the biggest development in p2p since bittorrent, true p2p anonymous sharing, but as it is it's a dead duck. :(

I agree...

Our current time is awful for publishing new software.

One way to really increase users would be to marry Tixati with Fopnu, but also add suppport for eMule's KAD.

Emule is open source, so it probably wouldnt be impossible task. There are still lots of eMule users,
and huge number of previous users that could come aboard if integration would be done properly. For example
using more ports to run multiple KAD connections in parallel would be huge improvement compared to eMule.

Also there are huge number of files currently shared in KAD network, so people that try Fopnu wouldnt
just throw it away, thinking that it is just another dead P2P network/software.


Discussion with users is important. It is hard to donate without knowledge of what is under development,
and what is the long time plan. And what really is the mission statement of Fopnu.

But as long as there is hope, we should support the effort.

No Emule is ratio based and that is bad. I assumes no one uploads and so penalizes. Also no ratio based system is going to be 100% all of the time it can be wrong and user cannot do anything about it.

Then there is also no control for the Media video players or sites they are linked to. Which means a video can keep uploading for days with very little download.

Take 10 people with same video give each a percentage of that video and then limit their download for more to nil. Then they site and upload forever the player has the complete videos from those 10 people. Multiply this across many users and you see the issue is greater. To the point everyone PC becomes part of many large media servers which in turn can be connected to everything serving millions of people those videos, audio etc.

P2P has suffered greatly for many reasons over the years and the latest above doesn't help.

What we all need is true decentralized secure P2P but one that we can trust and work for us. I'm sure if this was so then everyone would share their files and what a mass collection that would be. Imagine multi TB storage been shared by millions of people. Yes people have this and more I'm certain to share. But the network and software it is shared on has to be secure and with no limitations, not abused by ratio, percentages and ability to used for video serving.

Think Video serving is good then how about we all have repeat play on all your videos 24/7. Sure I guess you will be the first to cap the speed or give up and go elsewhere. For this end good P2P software has to have none of the just file sharing and no more it is what P2P is about.

Also it has to be open as torrent that is everyone uses it because everyone needs it. Lightweight minimum resource need to run it on any OS and PC well Windows XP on wards if need a minimum. Keep to normal system code that is also portable across different platforms. C C+ C++ etc fine but not exotic develop code such as JAVA, QT, NET, Python etc. Then and only then will there be a P2P software we all will need to use.

Hope this helps.

I think a feature that can turn fopnu to be extremly popular is sharing of TV stream links (acestream links).

People can find acestream links on Google but those links are often outdated.
There is also an acestream search engine but their catalog is dead (too few links)


This is why the database of TV links should be powered by a public p2p network to be a huge database with many mirrors for each tv channel.

OP:
What is needed:

1) Open Source? I'm guessing not, the dev(s) have invested many hours in Tixati and now Fopnu. But "the internet needs it".
2) More interaction between dev(s) and users, there's practically none that I can see.
3) More 'marketing' on social media etc. from devs and users. But this is pointless without (1) or (2) above.

I appreciate open source. But I also appreciate reciprocity. That sadly has become a cultural artifact. So many feel entitled to freebies and never give a second thought to paying their respects. In the old communal villages people shared and did their part to make life good for all others. When empires and states came along, community was damaged if not destroyed. That said we have new 'crowd sharing', "kickstarter", gofundme options.

I have no idea how DEVs support themselves. Since there are no ads and no 'registration' fees, and we do not have the DEVs address to send them flowers, pizza and wine, we are left to our accolades and monetary donations to show our support, PAY our respects.

Open source? I don't know the DEVs reasons for deciding that one way or the other. But I do respect that he has invested 20+ years now in research and programming all this. His time, his dime. I also know that nothing is perfect. There may be some vulnerability in the base design. p2p programs in general may pose a threat to huge corporations. They would have the resources and inclination to do as much damage as they could. Yes, I know that with open source many sets of eyes looking at the code could see flaws and suggest solutions. But all those eyes might not be looking out for our interests. For now, I accept and respect the DEVs decision to protect his work product from co-optation and potential exploitations.

As to #2, more interaction between DEVs and users, I agree that at times it seems "there's practically none that you can see." But please...you have to know that the DEV has powerful enemies. For those of us that look to p2p for sharing information and media with a high "social significance", we know THEY do not want us thinking. THEY do not want us sharing. THEY do not want us exposing their mischief. It is no surprise to me that he is guarded in his contact with users. His public posts and interactions are very limited to say the least.

That said, and particularly as to fopnu, it is a work in progress. Those of us who have been around, can see the deep roots of fopnu going back to winMX and we remember what happened with winMX. And we cry for the million plus user-community built around it back than. I think we are gradually building a base for a global p2p library. And fopnu is being refined along the way to handle that. But I agree more is needed before a big promotional pitch. As of today, there is no official documentation on anything except a small explanation of text color codes when that functionality was added recently.

Also, although in the immediate the DEV seems AFK, he and his team have been sporadically visibly active. They created 2 public channels to engage with users on fopnu. One for fopnu and one for tixati. And there were 'recently' spurts of real-time interaction, particularly when certain perceived "bugs" were being sorted. I can only assume that that information was then taken back and is being worked on. Or it could be the DEV team simply needed to go fishing for a while and take care of themselves. Nothing a kickstarter for $250,000 wouldn't help with :)

to be continued...I am sure.

> There's a huge population out there of people who hoard, and then want to share, their wares. Hundreds of thousands of files. By wares I don't mean the latest albums or films, I mean hard to get information like magazines, ancient documentaries, bootleg music, out of print books, photography collections, artwork scans, ROM collections, maps etc.

I am this person. I have thousands of torrents worth of files, and I want to make them available en mass. Seeding torrents for all of them is impractical. I've used networks like Retroshare in the past, but each has its own problems.

Fopnu would be an ideal network for me, and I would join it in a heartbeat were it not for the fact that I can't use UDP.

Why can't you use UDP?

I would assume there are VPN providers that encapsulate UDP in TCP.

I'm not sure, but I feel that I have heard about this and it would make perfect sense.