BetaNews

[mouser]

As part of the preparation for the 2006 year-end wrap-up, I'm posting about a few sites that we've mentioned a lot but never in their own post.

There are several really good new software listing sites (www.snapfiles.com is one of my favorites), but I know of no other site which focuses so much on beta releases and goes to such steps to list new betas before they become official (in fact i have to be carefull even just making a post about a private beta of one of my programs on the forum because somehow the hive mind of betanews seems to discover and post about it!)

http://www.betanews.com

[zridling]

I have a love/hate relationship with BetaNews. Good download site, but the reviews follow a predictable IT'S GREAT!/IT SUCKS! pattern. The "great" crowd is sometimes informed and has sometimes used the software they're reviewing. The "sucks" crowd consists of numerous 12-year old trolls (or so it seems) who often have no clue because they've never used the software they're trashing. You can tell by the way they describe something completely different that what you know as fact.

The one thing I hate about BetaNews is how quick its editors hit the ban key on users. Often a complaint or two is all it takes for them to ban your account. And yet they call it a forum.

[mouser]

i agree the rating system is chaos.
and misleasing in the sense that if an author wants he can easikly bump up his scores and bury competitors.  so i definiltely advise taking the ratings with a huge grain of salt.

[brotherS]

Despite the flaws of the system it mostly does work. I agree with the ratings or at least the tendency* of the ratings of all the programs I know and checked at their site.

*sometimes programs get a less good rating than they deserve, but I never saw a really bad rating for a great program - same is true vice versa.

[Josh]

It appears that they have changed out their site. A week or so ago, they changed the coloring scheme and general theme in prep for CES, now they have completely revamped it. Check it out at their homepage

[zridling]

Yea, it's completely ruined. And that's bad news for the writers on staff there, since the design makes the site much harder to read.

[TucknDar]

Agree.. I kinda liked the old look.