As I'm posting, the replies are 1 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 0.
I think that it's the archivers' job to 1) filter the useless programs and 2) delete the useless programs that were already added to the archives, like quadratic solvers.
If there are too less persons to perform that work (hassle), the current staff should be able to recruit persons to help them, as I've read in the comments of the news.

Personally, I like Option #2 (and so do many others, it seems), but who will be doing the rating?

Eyery person that has an account! Much like how the reviews are done, but all you have to do is pick a number.

I also think rating files will be the best solution, maybe it's even possible to make the rating affected by the users opinion as well as by the number of downloads for that file. Files that have a real low rating after a few months than can/should be be deleted

The badly rated files should not be deleted, it should only be put in a folder or moved to the bottom of the list.

Yes, prehaps each file should have a rating based on avarage number of weekly downloads, but heavily effected by ratings, so even if nobody rates your file, if it is downloaded alot, it will still have a good rating. Also a feature to sort by this rating, like you can sort by date, would be nice.

The files aren't the only thing that we should be able to search by date. We should also have the ability to choose to have new posts ascending or descending. I don't like having to scroll to the bottom to see the newest posts.

yeah, but often the new posts are buried in long threads and might not make sense if they were displayed out of context.

Here's my solution...click "Edit", "Find on this page", type the date for which you wish to find a post, and click "Find"...problem solved...just keep clicking find to get the next recent post ;)

Of course, then we have the issue of people repeatedly downloading their programs to take them off the craplist.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to have your friends review your files as good?

You could always require login so it would only count one download per user (like the polls) and for non-members have a "guest" or "ananamys" that does not count for a download statistic.

but then the statistics wouldnt accurately reflect downloads. A large number of this site's visitors dont have accounts but still download programs.

I am sooo sorry for this off topic post, but...was that an attempt to spell "anonymous?" You better be careful or the spelling Nazi's are going to be on you like a fly on dog poop... :D

sorry, I guess you can say I couldn't spell yesterday.

No you spelled yesterday correctly, it was anonymous you couldn't spell.

What about adding a "sort by downloads" feature in the directories? It would clear up the hassle of downloading those *crap* files as the good ones would be at the top. (good by downloads, NOT reviews)
That would keep those programs on the site and not in some hidden directory that's forbidden to access.
You'll always have the problem* with users getting their friends* to download their files, but then, you can't say that won't happen with reviews.
Perhaps downloads should be limited to registered users?

A sort by downloads feature is a good idea.

However. limiting downloads to registered users will most likely scare away most visitors.....

Why should someone have to get an account to download programs that were written specifically for free distribution? I realize that it would help with "rating by downloads", and that getting an account at ticalc.org is free, but what if you can't afford to get service from an ISP that gives you an e-mail account?

Rating by downloads is a bad idea. The programs written later then have a huge (unfair) disadvantage, and need a much higher download rate than the older programs to even start to catch up. Also, many bad programs that I've seen have gotten many downloads, just because of the promising title and description.

ever heard of hotmail? If you can find a modem, you can get a free email address.

Hotmail is always a good Free email service, if you can't use that due to network restrictions, then you could always find someone with a domain-name and they'll most likely have hundreds of POP3 accounts.
Rating systems might seem ok, but I think a lot more specific sub-directories would be better.

Yahoo! Mail (mail.yahoo.com) works too, although they don't use POP3.