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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."

5 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Is this any surprise? by KingSkippus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's obviously missing the point. Among all of the software that does nothing, his is clearly the best.

    Seriously, is this any surprise? Every time I go looking for some generic piece of software (as opposed to some specific software I already know and trust), I usually have to sift through a bunch of crap links to sites that exists for no other purpose than to collect ad revenue.

    It's not just software, though. Good review sites are really hard to find. A while back, I was looking for a decent web host that would provide inexpensive VPS hosting. I ran across a lot of "review" sites where, surprise surprise, the winner of the review was owned by the same people who posted the review. The really scummy thing was that I would see three or four different review sites, and three or four hosting providers would be at the top of those reviews, and it turned out that all three or four hosting providers--and "review" sites--were all owned by one big company using a bunch of different names.

    The lesson to be learned here is that you should never believe anything you read on the Internet that you don't know to already be true or that you get from a source that has proven its trustworthiness repeatedly. Assume that everyone out there is a scum-sucking bottom-feeder who wants to rip you off. I have a short list of around 15 or 20 sites that I know are dependable to be relatively honest, and I consider pretty much everything else junk. (And I often even look at my top 15 or 20 with a skeptical eye, especially when it comes to user-submitted reviews and such.)

    1. Re:Is this any surprise? by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most of what is on the internet or comes through the internet is an attempt to sell you something that you don't really want. Unfortunately, that's how the internet turned out. Using the internet is inherently an exercise in filtering, sifting through, and blocking unwanted crap advertisements.

      I think it's absurd that we can't build an informational network or communications infrastructure without having it jammed pack full of ads and scam-artists, but apparently that's the world we live in.

    2. Re:Is this any surprise? by Vulva+R.+Thompson,+P · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Good points. I take it a step further and say it's a civic duty to fellow netizens to recommend the good sites you've found. Especially to your Joe Sixpack friends so they don't get sucked in by the deceptive crap.

      Btw, if most are like me, product decisions are usually based on other user's feedback as opposed to formally published reviews. Here's my "Top 10 List" contribution of sites in that vein:

      1) Online stores: www.resellerratings.com
      2) A/V: www.avsforum.com
      3) Hosting: www.webhostingtalk.com
      4) General product reviews: www.amazon.com (yeah, really)
      5) Hardware: www.newegg.com
      5) Anything CD/DVD related: www.cdfreaks.com
      6) ATI: www.rage3d.com
      7) Nvidia: www.nvnews.net
      8) Storage (forums mainly): www.storagereview.com
      9) Just plain interesting and informative threads: www.arstechnica.com (anyone remember the endless, very informative Dell 2000FP thread?)
      10) Opinions on Microsoft: www.slashdot.org

      FWIW, YMMV.

    3. Re:Is this any surprise? by Joe+Snipe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most of what is on the internet or comes through the internet is an attempt to sell you something that you don't really want.

      I think it's absurd that we can't build an informational network or communications infrastructure without having it jammed pack full of ads and scam-artists, but apparently that's the world we live in.


      I hope that everyonewho reads this (and the other similar opinions that will no doubt be echoed in this thread), understands that this is a neccesary evil that we must endure in order to enjoy the greater freedoms that the internet has to offer (anonymity, freedom of speech, freedom for censorship). If enough people start complaining about ads, illegal porn and security breaches (mark my words on that last one), these freedoms will be put up on the chopping block. We all know the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller... It works both ways. Please do what you can to help educate people that the problem isn't the internet, but rather a societal problem.

      IOW: don't say "this website is a scam", Say this company is a scam, and they have sold their credibilty. I hope I am making the distinction clearly, I am late for lunch and my blood sugar is low o.0

      --
      Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
  2. obligatory Donald Norman quote by Dekortage · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "They probably won an award."

    (from The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman)

    --
    $nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts