ok, so being un technical the girl I am I have a q (or 2):

What kinds of things do you look for in a website to be creditable (aka, this is a safe and lovely site to browse and download from)?

What kinds of things will tip you off for a website to be bad (aka, you don’t want to download from here/ touch it with a ten foot pole)?

[edit: I shouldn’t post things when my brain is this messed up]

Brain, cannot, comprehend....bad english...GAH!

If it's geo****ties, don't touch it.

Well, there's not really any real rule of thumb, but it's usually best to steer clear of the ones hosted by Geocities, Angelfire, or the like. Also, look for copyright info, author name, e-mail, etc. Sure this can be easily falsified, but I doubt most people trying to trick you/harm your computer will go that far. But then again, I'm not really much of a tech-head either, so you should probably wait for some more professional advice.

Privacy policies are nice, but they're just text on the screen... They can be easily faked.

The best way if you really want something from this site is to google it, and see if anything bad comes up.

There's no real way to be sure though.

Usually when an active-x plugin popups that looks like spyware is usually when you want to cautious. If what you are downloading is a exe or something not in a container-type file (aka zip, ace, rar, etc.), then you want to be sure you know EXACTY what you are downloading before you go ahead and do it. If you have a virus scanner handy, be sure to use that if you just want to be absolutely sure what you're downloading isn't a virus.

If the site is full of bad grammar and extreme spelling errors, I won't go near it.

It'd be nice if it validated

DO we really need to do this everytime elana posts?

So... we shouldn't trust the Massassi Forums?

Pictures of nude people normally make me very cautious of everything the site offers. But like SavageX said the activex and other program (like "special download managers") installation pop-ups are of course the biggest urge to be careful.

Safe sites are usually well organized, the amount of adverts is not overpowering, and the content of the possible ads is not dubious. And you immediately know what the site is all about. Like JediHunter said, copyright information is a good addition, even if it doesn't guarantee anything.

I also posted helpful stuff...sorta.

Here are some pointers. Always stay away from sites that:

1. Have animated .gifs
2. Have the colour pink or purple in large quantities
3. Have a title such as "My Cat Fluffy's Site"
4. Are written IN ALL CAPS
5. Have bad spelling/grammar
6. Automatically play music when you load them up
7. Try to download things onto your computer without asking you
8. Have obnoxiously large amounts of flashing ad banners
9. Link to porn
10. Link to warez
11. Has a main page that is so long that it takes minutes to scroll to the bottom
12. Has pictures on the main page of all the "awards this site has won", especially if the awards are "best pet site award 1997"
13. Are hosted by angelfire or geocities
14. Are fan sites for TV shows with a bunch of screencaps of said show, but no real content whatsoever
15. Start off like "HeY gUyz, mY nAMe iS KrIStY, iM 14 aNd I lOVe fuZzY aNImAlZ anD tHiS is My pAgE on teh IntErWeb..."
16.

what's that?

warez is pirated software. (In other words, they offer software for free illegally).

Any site that can be reached by clicking a ad. Especially if it's one of those free 4 bazillion useless random similes downloads. Also, avoid German sites. (.de)

Obviously German websites are dangerous and cannot be trusted.

A lot of the "underground" sites are actually fairly respectable, safe and popup-free (safe within the limitations of providing stuff illegally :p).

if spelling is such a big deal, enable vB's spell checker.

WHAT THE HELL? It's almost as if EVERYTHING you say is IGNORANT. There's no reason to treat .de websites with any less confidence than say .com (commercial!?) websites! Think about what you are criticizing before posting...

It was obviously meant as a 'joke'

Well it's just so hard to tell these days. Given his track record, I wouldn't put it past him.

Generally, I don't trust sites with black backgrounds, and bright text colours of various sizes. I also don't trust sites that spawn thousands of popups.

And don't trust site that are black and green.

Actually, a lot of .de sites can be very bad for the computer. If you use the google toolbar, or Firefox, you'll be okay (and turn off ActiveX), but german sites are usually based around CS and hacks, and so therefore aren't very trustworthy (for the most part).

This is sad truth. There are reputable ones though. Just be careful. Hell be MORE careful going to .ru sites, russian sites. They're very often based around serials and cracks and install loads of malware/spyware on your comp.

Seems like they can be bad for the brain too

And one more innocent soul was corrupted.

heheheheheh