Companies playing dirty, moral degradation of the software market

[Jeremy Collake]

I wanted to hear your opinions on what we've all seen: Companies playing dirty, some abandoning all moral codes of conduct. Of course, this is nothing new to society at large, but it is something I feel we can combat with sufficient transparency and awareness. Now, I would appreciate mentioning no specific company names, use aliases. We don't want to make any accusations against any companies, this is simply a general discussion.

My concern is not only that it makes legitimate vendors like myself in a tough spot, but it also abuses consumers. In fact, third-party crapware is often times the root cause of problems I get reported to me.

Open for debate ...

[hanemach_gt]

Well, some people are born to take money over work of others, we just have to say the truth or ignore them, that is my opinion. Real users know what to get I suppose.

[Jeremy Collake]

What is your opinion on MyWOT web rating service? It is not perfect (nothing is), and has been abused and misused with fake profiles and such ;o. However, I use it, and find it extremely helpful.

Once difference between it and the web rating services of other companies is that instead of just detecting malware, it lets users rate sites based on very broad criteria. Now, this has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, some political sites get rated dangerous for expressing views that are held by a minority. On the other hand, some scummy sites get rated bad, as they may deserve, even they they don't host malware.

Web rating services therefore are broken down into two categories:

Algorithmic: Scans for malware, if none found, site is GREEN/SAFE, even if they have a BBB (US business rating agency) rating of 'F' (the worst).
User based: Relies ONLY on user reports. MyWOT is the only I know of.
Hybrid: None known to exist.

[hanemach_gt]

Everybody needs a mirror, but that mirror is often polluted  .

[Jeremy Collake]

Ah, at first I misunderstood. You mean everyone needs a mirror to look at their own self reflection, and the web rating services are such a mirror, all be it sometimes polluted?

[hanemach_gt]

Pollution, I mean fake users. I think MyWOT is the least polluted mirror ;p.

[Jeremy Collake]

Pollution, I mean fake users. I think MyWOT is the least polluted mirror ;p.

In fact, it is the *only* rating service that relies solely on user reviews, afaik. If there are competitors, they are too small for me to have noticed yet . I've found MyWOT to be reliable 95% of the time. There are some discrepancies. Sometimes bad companies create fake profiles to increase their ratings. Sometimes good sites get rated down for invalid reasons, or misunderstandings.. or get attacked. However, 95% is very reliable.. of course, it is my own guesstimate

[hanemach_gt]

Yes, and good you make use of it - I believe this makes users more trustful.

[Jeremy Collake]

Yes, and good you make use of it - I believe this makes users more trustful.

At least those who know of MyWOT. I am a little saddened to see that only 26 million users (estimate based on MyWOT home page) have downloaded and/or use the MyWOT plug-in. Therefore, its market share is smaller than I would have hoped. Of course, for the types of users who would like Process Lasso, the % using MyWOT is likely higher than the average population. Anyway, let's diverge away from MyWOT.

To all: What else can be done to make users aware of such companies? What are the worst moral violations you've seen? Again, do NOT name any specific companies.

[hanemach_gt]

Only 26 million?;p Let it expand, it is younger than me . We have to pray no one will try to rip Process Lasso, as vague corporation from Cayman Islands may try to.

[Jeremy Collake]

Only 26 million?;p Let it expand, it is younger than me .

Perhaps you are right. And it is also a good thing it doesn't expand too fast, as they need to make sure it is done 'right', and the correct any abuses of the system.

Only 26 million?;p Let it expand, it is younger than me . We have to pray no one will try to rip Process Lasso, as vague corporation from Cayman Islands may try to.

Don't give anyone any ideas, lol ;p.