With this Thursday's download page was a different version of Idea Informer, which enabled comments to be separated out into improvements, queries, bugs, and bouquets. Was this just a one off? It seemed like a useful way forward and I was sorry to see it disappear, apparently without trace..

Today the top two suggestions are asking for features that are already in the Odin Video vconverter software, indicating that visitors are voting based on what seems a sensible idea (with lots of votes already) rather than their own experience of the application. Is this likely to give the developer useful feedback or encourage others to offer their wares?

One of the advantages of the categorised Idea Informer would be its position at the top of the page. Today's only comment to make it past moderation so far is a query about formats for Windows mobile phones. This would be fine under questions in Idea Informer, wouldn't then be liable to lots of negative votes - and someone could have responded to it. For those who are having problems it would help not to have to hunt through a long list of comments to see if anyone else is having the same difficulty.

This would (you'd hope) reduce the number of less than useful comments on the 'main' section of the download page.

You could also consider letting users indicate under which category they think an Idea Informer comment should be - either to Moderators via response comments or 'simply' by the number of visitors who tag a statement as actually being a question of plain misleading.

Thanks anyway for all the freebies.

I can't see why GOTD doesn't publish the MD5 for downloads - along with some instructions (or a youtube video) to a free utility like http://www.georgejopling.co.uk/md5check/md5check.html (If you are unfamiliar with MD5 checks - there is an explanation on this webpage).

At least it could go some of the way to reducing the questions users post saying "there is a problem with the download". If they can verify that the problem is with what they received, and not with the file that is sitting on the GOTD servers.

If it helps, is of interest or whatever, saw a map the other day -- in a nutshell, in large portions of the US a surprisingly large % of downloads fail to complete... if I remember correctly somewhere around 80% success was tops, & it went sometimes rapidly downhill from there.

Hi Old Fella, if you did get a full download and still get a corrupted message try using another file archiver such as J-Zip or 7-Zip (both are free) I sometimes get the same problem when using winrar. Using one of the others has always sorted the proble.

Download 7-Zip HERE

Download J-Zip HERE

Hi, Old fella, welcome to the forums.
I tested the zip file and didn't find any problem.
It seems your download was interrupted.
Clear your download cache and re-download, then extract the files to your desktop or any folder.
When you use a download-manager like Free Download Manager you can resume broken downloads.
.

Increase your download speed and resume broken downloads
FDM accelerates downloads by splitting files into sections and then downloading them simultaneously. As a result download speed increases up to 600%, or even more! FDM can also resume broken downloads so you needn`t start downloading from the beginning after casual interruption....

Good luck!

graylox

I wanted to try Easy Flyer Creator - but my system says the zip is corrupt or invalid. Not sure where to post this but can someone please fix this!

Hi Wayne, try and reboot your modem and/or router, then try and register it again. If that doewsn't work, clear out your giveaway cookies from the internet cache then try again. one of these two fixes should work, but if they don't check your security settings. :) please let us know if one of the above worked. thank you.

I apologize for the cross-posting but not sure where to post my concern. Just installed Undeleter (today's giveaway) but can't register it with the activation program. When I run the program, it simply doesn't activate no matter whether the actual program is opened or closed. This often happens, and then I get all kinds of requests from the company to buy the eporduct.

Any suggestions?

like help help but it said go to Forums how come that get in a post ?

I hope this comment is in the right tag. If not, feel free to move it. But anyhow, I noticed today's Giveaway of the Day was another picture-related software. I noticed that we have been getting this type of free software quite a bit! Also, wasn't this particular software just offered a few weeks ago? If not, then I apologize. But, I have noticed that picture software seems to be the trend here recently. I made some comments earlier in another topic, about suggesting some other free software to consider giving away, so I won't repeat the suggestion again, in this topic. Thank you.

I think hotdoge3 is (as you no doubt suspect) joking about poor comment wording when posting these, Suki. I've seen other hotdoge comments in perfect English. Not that I'm criticizing. What some others post are real head scratchers, and I'm not inclined to believe that they all speak English as a 2nd or 3rd language. I think some are just too lazy to edit themselves. ditto, lol.

I don't think that most developers read the comments at all, lol...if they did I would have received the reg code for "Flex GIF Animator"! Been waiting 6 months!!!
I have to agree with Ashraf and the rest...
I read the comments to make a decision on if it's worth my time to download, and have asked question's which have gotten some thumbs down, till someone that understands what I was questioning will answer.
I only vote if the comment has helped me, but I do agree that it is hard to wade through some of it to find the pros and cons...but some of them are funny!
hotdoge3: Is that comment real, or am I getting suckered here, lol???

Suki

# 10 & 11 say not work may be not fit it to fit exe go to C name of file EPMProSetup.exe
you need to set it up to work.# 15 not work? and can it do USB & FAT16 TO FAT32
May be can not read it got good help & web Help is very good & forums not like some tell you send Email may be help? 37 said mistake to partition I know from DOS, It's a good read LOL Don't Delete I like to read it for fun

Well, I must agree on that point at least - that it is amusing. LoL

I don't vote on the usefulness of the comment. I really don't see the point other than to encourage or discourage the commenter.

Take them for what they are,,,,,,,,,,,, they are comments from other users like us (some may be more or less experienced). Alot of the comments point to other "Open Source" or "Freeware" alternatives that they personally use and like, that may be equal or even better than the software being offered.

And I have to admit that I really don't go down that section for advice, its amusement for me. LOL

While I must take responsibility for approving for display some of the worthless comments - I figure some of the less useful comments can be coming from users who really don't have a clue. Perhaps they have missed the point of the software, or they are expressing a concern or raising an issue that others have raised (and they don't bother to read preceding comments. This might indicate there is something the developer hasn't addressed or explained properly. Perhaps the website or the program is unclear in some way - and by pushing these comments through, a developer should take the hint - and fix the problem or answer the question.

Remember the comments can also be for the developer and not just for other users. There is no need to answer or respond to every question. I try to focus on allowing only comments on the software. Typically I will bin comments on the GOTD voting system, comments or complaints on other users or users comments. And one off "I can't install" or "how do you unzip" type comments. Users with basic problems with comments should take them to the forums.

Asking for another program to be offered as a future giveaway also will probably get binned. Remember it's comments on todays program. Not "Please I want photoshop". Not "Thank you GOTD I lick your bottom in gratitude". Not "userX is an idiot". not "Don't vote until you have used the software for a week". Not "Hey I'm first and my name is userX", and not "Please visit my blog. It rocks".

Typically I won't vote on comments. I don't really see the point to it. If comments could be hidden (with a link to display) votes that fall below a user set threshold, then it might have a point.

If each user had to login with a username and could select to hide or show each comment, that would be useful over the day (and over past days) - when you could display only the comments that you found useful.

Gotta agree with you Archangel. I do some comment voting, but do it carefully. Often, I don't vote either way. I try avoid giving a thumbs down unless it's pretty wothless. Obviously, though, some people are complaining about the time it takes to wade through the crap. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

If you don't like a comment just skip it (LOL). I've seen many good comments get all kinds of thumbs down ratings and couldn't understand why. Then on the other side I've seen really useless comments get even 20+ thumbs up. I can only speculate why because it sure had nothing to do with the comment.

The staff here goes through the comments regularly (read some of there previous posts) and they do a pretty good job for no money.

We all have opinions and some may not be as fluent with language as others but they still can voice what they want. Then its up to the Mod's and Admin's to leave it or not (hey!! somebody else's opinion).

Although I'm sure you right, FABScott, on the discouragement issue, I've got to side with Ashraf. No automatic system can substitute for conscientious moderation. And I'm hesitant to critcize the moderators, since they obviously don't agree with censorship. Some comments are slammed just because people have a such a bad experience with certain types of posters. That causes them to vote no even on legitimate comments just because they have a slight resemblance to a type of comment their sick of. Others slam the newbie who asks a question that's obvious to all the regular users. And others try to enforce their vision of the comments section on everybody else. After all,

"Please comment only on the software here. If you have technical problems or suggestions on our project, please leave us a note in our forums."

can be read in more than one way. For example, does it mean only post technical problems with the software in the forums, or technical problems with "our project". I've seen great examples were the developer answered problems in the comments section and earned a lot of good will. Would that have happened if were restricted to the forums?

I do think GOTD should be a little more specific with the type of comments they want. Like: "please only post the results of you software tests in the comments section". That's what some people believe the comments section should be restricted to. I don't agree and I don't think GOTD agrees either. But you're right, too. Sometimes, half of the comments are junk. I think it's in the hands of the GOTD moderators. I don't want censorship, but they let PeterM worthless "It won't load on Windows 3.1" through on Sunday. Well, at least it's short. Bottom line: I don't think there's any simple answer.

A comment that says, for example, "why would anyone want this useless/crap program?" or similar rubbish, should be removed when it reaches it's first 10 downthumbs. The developers of all these and future giveaways read the comments. No doubt many are put off by stupid remarks - so we are losing out on new giveaways for the sake of some jerks comment.

This is my opinion.

I would have to disagree.

Many comments are simply given thumbs down because Billy Bob Joe did not like what the comment said rather then giving the comment a rating based on how good/useful the comment was.

I have seen many comments that I consider "useful" that have been given thumbs down. Also, the thumbs down and thumbs up fluctuate for many comments.

Now of course, there are certain comments that deserve thumbs down, and are given thumbs down in mass by everyone who reads them. The sad part is, this is part of a comment system. Not that it is impossible, but rather who is to decide which comment is to be removed and which not?

Unless the comment breaks specific rules set by GOTD (in which case the comment should not even pass moderation), I think the comments should be left as they are.

Ashraf

My idea and suggestion is:

When a stupid remark reaches 10 thumbs down [eg 10 'no's] it should be automatically deleted. If not automatically deleted, it should be automatically reported to someone who can review it with the ability to delete.

Some of the comments are getting ridiculous now.