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BEWARE: IE7Pro and OrbitDownloader
Wordzilla:
Especially if you are already using IE7Pro and/or OrbitDownloader, please read in!
Refer to the following two threads on the forum to see why I made this post:
IE7Pro : An ultimate Add-On for IE7
orbit downloader 1.0-the fastest free download manager
IE7Pro and OrbitDownloader are developed by the same team if you have a look at their about us pages and my snapshots of domain whois info - YES you are right, they are spamming our forums again and propagating their "user testimonials" all over the net. As a friend of mine has duly pointed out, they have flooded the web with advertising to the point that it drowns out all complaints, google it and you won't possibly miss their spams. Given overwhelming evidence, I'm pretty sure that these activities are officially endorsed and sponsored. Orbitdownloader.com, which hosts a previous unknown product, gets a Google PageRank of 6 in such a short period (the site was created on 17-Oct-06, according to WHOIS)
WHOIS info:
BEWARE: IE7Pro and OrbitDownloader
BEWARE: IE7Pro and OrbitDownloader
There is not even a slightest chance I might be tempted to try these products out and I'd like to further inform folks here of these unethical marketing behaviors of the same origin. Why would you support products whose developers have more incentives to advertising in almost any way, acceptable or not, than to perfect their products and genuinely support their users (just have a look at their forums).
I hope you guys have not left this thread behind: orbit downloader 1.0-the fastest free download manager. The heated discussion ensued a wave of unethical marketing on the dc forums that promoted the product as a disguised satisfied user. It's still extremely easy to find out heaps and heaps of homebrew reviews, comments, and ratings on OrbitDownloader that people would not normally have given out for the less-than-stellar product.
I believe we were very happy to welcome the leading developer, Daniel Fang (read his self-introduction post) to the forum when he said to us on the IRC channel "we learn an lesson to be an polite software" and admitted "We spamming the review site".
Yes, it's often hard to get the word out esp. when you have a new product and are, unfortunately, short on cash to advertise it (and that's one of the reasons we created the Announce Your Software/Service/Product section to help software authors), but the IE7Pro and Orbitdownloader team has overdone their tricks, repeatedly (IE7Pro is their most recent product being promoted very unethically), to a degree that disgusts me irregardless of all kind considerations.
OrbitDownloader talks on DC IRC channel (excerpted from public chat logs, download the attached zip for complete logs):
SpoilerNov 13 00:51:46 * Developer is now known as orbitdev
Nov 13 00:52:17 <mouser> :)
Nov 13 00:53:07 <orbitdev> We spamming the review site, and some one follow us spamming orbit are malware...
Nov 13 00:53:32 <orbitdev> We will do more anti-virus/adware scaner check more.
Nov 15 05:29:10 <orbitdev> mouser: is there any guide about how to promote an personal software..
Nov 15 05:29:20 <orbitdev> mouser: I want have an look.
Nov 15 20:10:49 * orbitdev ([email protected]) has joined #donationcoder
Nov 15 20:11:08 <Dell[a]> hi orbitdev
Nov 15 20:11:15 <orbitdev> hi Dell..
Nov 15 20:16:32 <app> hi orbitdev
Nov 15 20:17:12 <orbitdev> hi app
Nov 15 20:19:06 <mouser> hi orbit
Nov 15 20:19:21 <mouser> orbit i think you have some enemies, thought im not sure why
Nov 15 20:22:15 <orbitdev> you mean the anti-orbit post?
Nov 15 20:22:24 <mouser> i dont mean on dc
Nov 15 20:22:30 <orbitdev> some are our own problem's
Nov 15 20:23:08 <orbitdev> the other's may be the competitor's post..
Nov 15 20:23:17 <orbitdev> dunno clearly.
Nov 15 20:23:19 <orbitdev> mouser:
Nov 15 20:23:30 <orbitdev> mouser: ask you an serious question
Nov 15 20:23:43 <mouser> one person entered this channel before and yelled at us for supporting orbit download spyware
Nov 15 20:23:54 <orbitdev> mouser: how to promote an software over the intenet?
Nov 15 20:23:57 <orbitdev> ...
Nov 15 20:24:03 <mouser> and another posted on betanews a comment mad at donationcoder and mentioned we support orbit spyware
Nov 15 20:24:13 <orbitdev> sorry to bother you ...
Nov 15 20:24:17 <mouser> is ok
Nov 15 20:24:33 <orbitdev> I feel very very sorry about this.
Nov 15 20:24:35 <mouser> just dont prove us fools by making spyware/adware!
Nov 15 20:24:40 <orbitdev> yeah.
Nov 15 20:24:43 <orbitdev> I promise.
Nov 15 20:24:55 <mouser> then you have no need to apologize and we welcome you :)
Nov 15 20:25:32 <orbitdev> mouser: Is there any typical method to promote software?
Nov 15 20:25:43 <mouser> none of us here are very good at software promotion im afraid
Nov 15 20:25:50 <orbitdev> mouser: I only know to submit it to every download site.
Nov 15 20:25:54 <mouser> yeah
Nov 15 20:25:56 <orbitdev> mouser: without spam.
Nov 15 20:26:10 <mouser> well lets see..
Nov 15 20:26:19 <orbitdev> mouser: another things I know is to develop some unique feature
Nov 15 20:26:21 <mouser> you are making a blog, thats good
Nov 15 20:26:31 <mouser> yes main thing is keep developing the software
Nov 15 20:26:36 <mouser> over time people will see you are serious
Nov 15 20:26:41 <orbitdev> mouser: let the user have to use your product.
Nov 15 20:26:44 <mouser> and more will go take a look and try it
Nov 15 20:43:07 <mouser> orbit i only know of 2 ways to get attention for a program
Nov 15 20:43:14 <mouser> 3 ways really
Nov 15 20:43:17 <mouser> 1) buy advertising
Nov 15 20:43:39 <mouser> 2) keep working on your product and improving it and it will eventually get mentioned by blogs and other sites
Nov 15 20:43:54 <mouser> (involves luck and waiting)
Nov 15 20:44:10 <mouser> 3) have friends in high places who will talk about your stuff
Nov 15 20:44:24 <mouser> #2 is the one most of us have to live with
Nov 15 20:44:32 <mouser> since we are not rich and dont have powerful friends
Nov 15 20:44:50 <mouser> so i can only suggest you keep working and improving
Nov 15 20:45:08 <orbitdev> yeah...
Nov 15 20:45:10 <mouser> and think about stuff you might add that would make it unique and useful
Nov 15 20:45:21 <orbitdev> en
Nov 15 20:46:33 <orbitdev> the only thing we can do is to continue increase the quality of our product.
Nov 15 20:46:47 <orbitdev> and learning the rules from you & other guys.
Nov 15 20:48:12 <mouser> #1 rule -> enjoy what you are doing
Nov 15 20:50:45 <mouser> if you want to talk to us about your plans for future of your website
Nov 15 20:50:49 <mouser> like you were saying before
Nov 15 20:51:03 <mouser> we might be able to give you suggestions and ideas
Nov 15 20:52:17 <orbitdev> en
Nov 15 20:53:32 <orbitdev> our website still in very early stage. just an video clips aggregator. after we have the first beta version, I will invite you to have an look.
Nov 15 20:54:03 <mouser> sounds good
Nov 17 01:35:53 <Orbitdev> mouser: we make the final decision base on your advice, terminate orbitnet after orbitgui quit, and you can disable orbitnet through options menu/installation menu, Becasue of this, we delay the 1.0.0.3 release date . Because of the weekend, we will release it in the next thuesday.
Nov 17 01:36:26 <Orbitdev> mouser: We learn an lesson to be an polite software :)
- Anderson
[edited to fix a link]
Wordzilla:
And what being more disturbing is that so far their products (downloader and IE extension) directly connects to the Internet to work.
dk70:
More lack of experience and startup "problems" than evilness I think. How is the chronology in this? They wize up or not? How you know spamming is sponsored?
Marketing is not evil - ever heard of SpreadFirefox? No offence to DC but it is just another forum - you find such post everywhere. Does not have to be directly connected to developers. A few fanboys can create lots of noise, dont expect them to care about rules. I actually use IE7Pro so would like to see of what is "very unethically" - needs more than forum spamming to get upset. So same developers behind those 2 programs, sites look the same as well - and ?
Connecting to internet is not really disturbing if you have ticked "check for updates" - so not the case I guess? To be a valid disturbance I would like to see analysis of transfer. Much software connects, many sites collects info.
cmpm:
Well it's on the ms website, but only 130 downloads from there.
If it's the same add-on.
No reviews, I think I'll wait a bit to try it.
http://windowsmarketplace.com/details.aspx?itemid=3407728#productSpecs
Shoot win xp took like three years to actually get most of it's problems solved.
Now they introduce vista..o boy...
Anyways....I don't understand why all the posting on forums when it's free. What is the purpose? I don't know.
And yes it's a direct connect to the internet as well as Google's toolbar. Google has a good reputation to my knowledge of keeping things secure.
Don't know anything about this IE7Pro deal. But that don't mean much anyway either....lol....cuz I don't know much about what data it will collect.
Think I'll wait this one out. But that's me. Besides all that it does can be done with other programs as well I'd bet.
Most if not all programs here at this site are posted by the author.
When no one knows about it being in existence.
Not putting IE7Pro in a bad light - just cautious.
It's very new and I am too tired to mess with something that is unproven by outside sources.
Though I do respect dk70's posts, I'd like to see more end users report on it's stability and security.
Wordzilla:
How is the chronology in this?
--- End quote ---
Spamming started from November 09, 2006 here on DC forums (their sites were registered on October 17 2006, according to WHOIS) when a guy related to the team posted about OrbitDownloader.
Spamming resumes on May 10, 2007.
How you know spamming is sponsored?
--- End quote ---
1. Overwhelming feedbacks from search engines
Take one search query for example: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22I%27ve+been+using+IE7Pro+for+a+few+weeks+and+I+really+really+like+it%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&start=0&sa=N&filter=0
2. Forum IP and email records
(click on the following usernames to read their last posts)
elva7025 is the first guy who posted a series of messages promoting OrbitDownloader on DC forums. We had to delete all of them but one, which was later moved to Announce Your Products section.
fishathome looks like an innonent user and supporter of Orbit Downloader but he happened to share the same ip with elva7025. :-\
orbitdev claims to be "the team leader of Orbit Downloader's develop tem" but he happened to share the same ip with elva7025 and fishathome. :-\ Interestingly, he introduced himself to us on the forum.
It's quite obviously that elva7025, fishathome, and orbitdev are the same guy who registered a couple of dummy accounts on the forum and played as puppet master hands from behind, is it not the case? Proxies that he used wouldn't help hide his identity.
Now we have Amabel who really likes the new IE7Pro... u get the idea.
Should I replace the words "endorsed and sponsored" with "directly involved", to be more accurate? ;)
3. orbitdev, the team leader admitted on IRC that he spammed. (read chat logs above)
If you are not sure about the scope of their spamming activities, check out "user" reviews and comments on download sites like download.com and softpedia.com. And moreover, Google it - there's just too much to miss.
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