Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Software Awards Scam

Posted by kdawson on from the bottom-feeders dept.

jamie sends us to a blog post about the worthlessness of some download sites' "5-star" awards. Andy Brice, a UK-based software developer, packaged up a little text file full of the words "This software does nothing" as an EXE and named it "awardmestars." So far his self-proclaiming useless program has garnered sixteen 5-star awards from download sites he submitted it to. Brice concludes that many of the download sites are "just electronic dung heaps, using fake awards, dubious SEO and content misappropriated from PAD files in a pathetic attempt to make a few dollars from Google Adwords."

4 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Mod me up! by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's see if it works here.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Mod me up! by lyz · · Score: 5, Funny

      You only get modded up if you increase traffic and therefore ad revenue to the site. Try using often searched words in your post.
      Boobs Torrent Paris Hilton Leprechauns

  2. Egads... by downix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Couldn't he have at least had to say "Hello World"?

    --
    Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
  3. Fake Awards?! by CaffeineAddict2001 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean my website in 1998 may not have really been "BEST OF THE WEB"?! Now that I think about it, what about all those poetry contests I won? The other poems they published sucked. It was Almost like they accepted anybody!

    OH MY GOD. SO MANY GOLD STICKERS -- WASTED ON MEDIOCRITY!