[assorted]

I would say Harby's definition of community means nothing to me. The quality of a message board community attached to a file sharing client is only useful as a free way for the company to have 24/7 excellent tech support.

However if the question posed were "quality of files/number of sharers" vs. "decent software" then I'd say community wins in a flash. For example Audiogalaxy vs. WinMx.

Audiogalaxy has every mp3 I have EVER looked for in my life thx to "community." As software, their central server is sluggish/infuriatingly slow, the client gives you no control whatsoever and the install comes with spyware. I'd say the AG software sucks major ass.

The WinMX software is great. Multi-sourcing now supported, never a problem connecting, decent array of configuration choices, and an ability to connect to opennap. However all of my slots fill on WinMX within minutes and I never find ONE song I want unless it was in the top 40 album chart at some point. And even then there are hopelessly long queues. So WinMX has great software but a shit community vs. Audiogalaxy with an excellent community and shit software.

Not even a question about which I prefer.

(ps: hopefully AG users will wander to decent software clients; but we'll see.)