Your "awards" are worthless

[BIGZIPZ]

http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/16/the-software-awards-scam/

I suspect a similar thing happens on game sites too.

[soniCron]

I dunno... his software seems to do exactly what it was meant to, does it without bugs, and is virus-free... ;)

[bignobody]

Yep, anyone who's ever released a product PAD file has experienced this. I just put those emails in a special folder for fun.

[bignobody]

You've actually got me thinking about this now. Instead of being cynical and seeing the awards as the link farming bait that they are, once you get enough of them, why not make an "awards" page covered with these? Aren't I link farming myself at that point?

[Polycount Productions]

http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/16/the-software-awards-scam/

I suspect a similar thing happens on game sites too.

It says:
We'll be back in a flash

What was there?

[Sol_HSA]

I got the article, so the blog site was probably down for maintenance or something. Basically, like anyone who has submitted pad files knows, tons of sites give "award" of five stars to everything that's submitted in hopes of getting linked back.

[Polycount Productions]

Ah, saw it now. But people - you can show the award without linking to them :D

[cliffski]

Hey that article was fantastic, major kudos to the guy. I'm sick of getting those spams about what awards my stuff gets.

[oNyx]

Saw it in the dzone queue. Voted it up.

The article is pretty funny. :)

[svero]

This has long been a pet peeve of mine. It was always pretty obvious that these awards weren't serious. I think in part this sort of behaviour is what led to the death of download sites as serious places to search for new software. Anyone here use them on a regular basis? For my part I just use seach engines. There was a time when I'd go directly to sites like download.com and hotfiles etc... (course those two are some of the better ones with regards to actual reviews etc...)

[princec]

I think it's great. It devalues all these sites, leaving mine being one of the valuable ones. I hate all download sites with a vengeance. They just take traffic away from mine.

Cas :)

[JoKa]

Nice article, but on the other side a waste of time to prove the obvious :)

[Spore Man]

All they (those download site owners) have to do is change the award to read "As Featured on SITE.com" and it would all be above-board.

[GolfHacker]

A "100% clean" award isn't quite the same as a 5-star award - it's more serious. Essentially, the site is certifying the software IS clean. If it isn't, they open themselves up to the possibility of lawsuits and other nasty stuff.

I believe Softpedia and a number of other reputable sites that give these kind of awards are above-board: if you go to their sites, you can see that not everything offered has received those awards.

Also, I don't receive nearly as many of these "100% clean" awards as I do other so-called awards.

And I always verify my awards - I think awards on some sites are probably legit. A good indicator is when my different games earn different awards (or no award at all). I always check my awards before I post them - if every download on the site has the same 5-star award, then I dump it in the bit bucket. Otherwise, someone is probably looking at the submissions and evaluating them to some degree.

[Sybixsus]

I don't post any awards, simply because I don't believe they influence people in the abstract. Casual gamers may not be game industry-savvy, but they've seen enough advertising to know that any old hunk a' junk can get a good review from somewhere.

I agree about the Softpedia awards being legit too.