Forums » About AlternativeTo

It seems that Diagramly actually put a link to their AlternativeTo page inside their webapp. There's nothing we can really do about that. :P

Now, THIS is just pushing it. Apparently, these guys have never heard about the concept of subtlety. http://alternativeto.net/software/vpnmaster/

http://alternativeto.net/software/vpn4all/

Ok, thanks OITSG. It just looks very suspicious with all comments being from users with only one "like" and one comment.. But yeah we should definitely do something about vpnmaster and vpn4all!

Yea, but we have done something about those two VPN apps. We have a warning on them and (i think?) they are not listed as alternatives to anything.

The big issue here is that the "like" signal is to prominent in our algorithm and we are working on solutions both to encourage more likes and to give the site more signals to sort the apps.

I've just noticed some suspicious behaviour.. The app was was added today and has also been featured on TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/from-your-clipboard-to-just-about-anywhere-sharing-files-in-one-click-to/), but there seem to be a lot of likes from completely new users and older users with the same two likes.. See the activity log here: http://alternativeto.net/software/click-to/activity

In fact it seems that the problem also relates to software by the same company (http://www.axonic.net) http://alternativeto.net/software/lookeen/ and http://alternativeto.net/software/gumnotes/

Also this user (http://alternativeto.net/user/pmproductivity/) seems to only have spammed comments advertising for rule.fm (http://alternativeto.net/software/rulefm/), an app which I also suspect of being influenced by fake users in July 2010 - see activity log here: http://alternativeto.net/software/rulefm/activity.

This user, http://alternativeto.net/user/pcarmitchel is also directly involved with Rule.fm (http://www.crunchbase.com/person/patrick-carmitchel). - Do we have or an official about like and comments from people directly related to the companies behind the software? If not I really think we should. In fact I think it would be really good with a clear policy document easily available on the site.

There is quite a bit to discuss because how involved would you have to be with a service to be ineligible to "like", and promote the service in comments..?

I also really think it would be good with a easy way of reporting spam/suspicious comments - I think it's done quite nicely at TechRadar.com where they have a "alert a moderator"-button..

I examined all the comments of the alternative apps to rule.fm and I found a lot of spam.

PMproductivity was the most busy to spam :)

I suspect Tree.io of being heavily influenced by likes from fake users. Many users with Tree.io as their only like, all singed up 30-06-2011 and 23-06-2011. http://alternativeto.net/software/treeio/activity

Looks strange yes. I would say the best way is to delete 20 likes or something from it. You can delete likes from the activity log! Be sure to only delete likes from users that isn't from real users.

Maybe we should add a feature that is something like "delete all likes from users with only one like from this application"?

I've have now deleted likes from the activity log, but when you're done and refresh the page nothing seems to be changed. Neither the number of likes nor the activity log..

• That sounds like a good idea!

I don't know what's wrong, but the like's I have deleted is still showed and still counts towards the overall number of likes.

Still? It may have been a cache issue. For performance reasons i just calculate likes when people add a like. I should of course also recalculate when you remove likes but i may have forgot that. Will look it up!

Puh! I found some bugs there :)

This feature actually didn't remove the vote nor did it remove the "activity". That is fixed now. Keep in mind thou that the number you see on the app about how many votes it has may not update right away but now it should work and it's tested :)

I also noticed that we had an issue that the "like activity" wasn't removed if the user removed the like by himself. This is also fixed now!

Thanks - It seem to work now!