Categorized "Best Of" Software Lists, suggestion for a new section

[LuckMan212]

Hey mouser,
not sure if this already exists on here.  If it does, forgive me and please direct me to it.  If not heres the idea:

how about a section that has software categories, with maybe the top 3 programs (users can vote) in each category.  Short descriptions of each app with maybe a screenshot or 2 and a link to the developer's site if there is one.  The criteria for selecting the "best" apps IMHO should focus on elegance, speed, stability, and features without bloat.  And perhaps price.

Suggestions for the categories, with some examples:
please suggest any categories that I might have missed or if I should further divide or combine the ones I have here...

Best Text Editor
TextPad
EmEditor
PSPad

Best Image Editor
Photoshop
Paint.NET
PhotoFiltre Studio

Best Audio (MP3/WMA/AAC) player
WinAMP
Quintessential Player
fooBar2000

Best Video Player
VLC
Media Player Classic
Nero ShowTime

Best Disk Partitoning Tool
Acronis Disk Director

Best Clock/Stopwatch/Timer/Alarm utility
AlfaClock
WorldClock

Best Font Viewer/Utility
FontViewer
FontExpert 2005

Best HTML/CSS editor
WeBuilder 2005

Best PHP editor
PHPedit

Best Audio Editor/Recording tool
Audacity
Adobe Audition

Best MP3 management tool
MediaMonkey
mp3tag

Best SQL DB management tool
SQLyog
MySQL Manager

Best Compression Util
WinRAR
WinZIP
7-zip

Best CD/DVD recoding tool
ImgBurn
Nero
Alcohol 120%

Best DVD transcoding/rebuilding tool
DVD Shrink
CloneDVD
ShrinkTo5

Best Icon Editor
Axialis IconWorkshop
IconCool

Best IM/jabber/chat client
Skype
BitWise
Miranda

Best RSS reader
FeedDemon
GreatNews

Best FTP client
CuteFTP Pro
SmartFTP
FileZilla

Best Anti-Virus
NOD32
Kaspersky
McAfee

Best Anti-Spyware
Spybot S&D
ewido
Microsoft AntiSpyware

Best Image Management Software
Picasa
ACDsee

Best Screenshot Util
Screenshot Captor
SnagIt
HyperSnap DX

Best Network Utility (ping/trace/portscan/dns lookup/etc)
PingPlotter
WS_Ping ProPack
SuperScan 4

Best Ethernet Packet Capture/Analysis Util
ethereal
CommView
SmartSniff

Best File Manager
xplorer2
XYPlorer 4.0
A43

Best Backup Software
Retrospect

Best Task Scheduler/Cron-type util
nnCron

Best Disk Imaging/Cloning util
Norton Ghost
Acronis True Image

Best Defrag Util
Diskeeper
Raxco Perfectdisk

Best File/Directory Comparison Util
WinMerge
Beyond Compare

Best Website Change Monitoring App
Website-Watcher
Check 'n' Get
Eldos TimeleyWeb

Best Disk Space Analysis Util
FolderSizes
Space
PCMag Diskpie

Best Data Recovery Util
Ontrack EasyRecovery
Handy Recovery 2.0
R-Studio

[mouser]

i kind of like this idea..
but i think a few modifications might be in order..
what if we had a child board of the reviews or mini reviews section, entitled "What's the Best Software to do this task"
something like that.

in that section, each thread would be titled like "What's the Best .. Data Recovery Utility"

in that thread people would post their opinions of what is best.

a new in that thread post about a new program would include screenshot, short description, link to website, price.

other posts can be from people agreeing or disagreeing and saying why, or adding their choice of best.

i think that while voting is fun, in this case i think it might not be all that useful and would be to inviting for abuse.
i'm actually not a huge fan of rating sites, i just feel like its begging for someone to manipulate the scores by creating multiple accounts - i much prefer to rely on people actually posting replies with their views as comments.

it would also be harder to maintain accurate voting lists, etc.

this way, its still a good way to look for opinions on each category, and we can also link to other posts on the forum about the different programs.

opinions?

[jgpaiva]

Mouser: i love that idea!
I think that it should be exactlly like you mentioned, every time someone ads some new software to the thread, that person should include a brief description, screenshots and links. Great idea! 

LuckMan212: I think your idea is well-based, but doesn't have the best results. When you made that list, (which is a great list, btw) i'm sure you had the problem i'm about to mention too:
There is way too much opinions and possibilities to open a poll in some of those areas!
I did a similar thread here on dc, entitled "best video player there is". Just watch what happened:  https://www.donation...43.msg14469#msg14469

[LuckMan212]

well I agree that posting polls for all those apps and categories simultaneously would not work too well.  But, starting threads and letting people just come in and post new things and have it all mixed in without some sort of official list somewhere at the top or in a sticky somewhere seems like an awful lot of work for someone who is coming in out of the blue to try and read through everything and figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff. (sorry for the run on sentence.. its late)

maybe a forum section with a bunch of sticky threads at the top for each category and then let everyone post new suggestions/reviews below that, and when a proper suggestion is made, it can be added by whoever is moderating that particular sticky, be it mouser or whoever.  Polls could be taken from time to time to help sort or rank the list of apps in each section.

Perhaps there should be some sort of "petition" or something whereby a program has to get a certain number of votes from verified forum members (at least 50 posts, for example) in order to make it to the official sticky thread list.  This would prevent mindless spamming and people trying to get their apps listed by voting from fake/multiple accounts.

These "golden" apps could be collectively granted the "DonationCoder Seal of Excellence" or some such designation to symbolize that they meet certain levels of quality in design.  Perhaps separate sections for freeware and shareware, with the shareware authors required to offer some sort of discount to DC members as a thankyou for the additional attention having their apps featured might bring.

just some thoughts.
 

[mouser]

when a new program is posted in a category thread we could add it to the first post in the thread so that the first thread would be a list off all the programs so far nominated..

there are no doubt advantages to a nicely organized and maintained section, but the overhead in maintaining it is hard, and there is some benefit to just letting people post their opinions - no need to deal with nominating, etc.

maybe this is something well suited for the wiki?

[LuckMan212]

hmm sounds good.  didnt know there was a wiki!

[jgpaiva]

In your last post, LuckMan212, i think i'm with you.
This new section could come as some sort of a "review", for those categories where there is too much material to do a review.

But i think it should have a different arrangement:
There would be a forum section for this, yes, but each of the categories, would have it's own section, with a few stickies with the "certified apps", that in the beggining would start by having no threads. Then, for each new app in that category, there would be one thread started, and after that thread had enough posts considering that app to be a good app, it would be made sticky. This would allow to have one moderator for each of the categories, would allow for a better organization, and like this, the moderator wouldn't have too much work copying the reviews, he would only have to make the thread sticky, if it deserves to be.
(i am sorry if this was your idea and i misunderstood you, i didn't understand some things in your post)

I think that there could be some honour given to the apps, maybe not the "DonationCoder Seal of Excellence", because that is reserved for apps that have been reviewed, but some kind of important distinction.

[jgpaiva]

mouser: i think that the wiki is a good idea, but then, there would be no way to give distinction to the best apps, would it?