i always wanted to be a professor. the go-to guy when aliens attack. probably those years spent watching 50's science fiction movies on channel 11 when i was a kid. you could go anywhere there was trouble and even the cops wouldn't stop you. hell, the general would personally fly you around in his "whirlybird."
Dr. Spratts! The giant tomato ate my dad's new Buick!!!"
"They're the females Timmy, they love shiny things. She only looks like a tomato of course, she actually tastes like a chicken."
"Golly Professor, can I have one?"
"Not until you're 18 Tim."
so it's always good to have a professor around, you never know when you're going to need one. without having run your program the description reminds me a bit of a p2p auction application released earlier in the decade. the basic premise was the ability to search for and bid on listed items on the hard drives of users running the program, kind of like ebay without the bay. i installed and ran it for a few weeks.
yours sounds a lot more sophisticated.
anything that facilitates sharing amoung users is a good thing, and as always, the more users the better for any community. i imagine however community management will have to be considered at some point and that even some form of "government" will be required, lest the happy community is overrun by destructive aliens.
welcome to the boards doc.
- js.