yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G1 Apps and Games] nEx.Software:
I am planning on developing an interface to the Market which allows for custom filters. I have a prototype Yahoo Pipe, which uses Cyrket to display Market data and allow simple filters. Basically, I can filter out apps that have certain words in the title, are from a certain developer (or more than one), or are below a certain rating threshold.

I will have to agree though on the statement about censorship. While it is true that his apps may be without any true merit, I do not believe that they are (or he is) breaking any of the Market rules or developer agreements. Unfortunately, as we've seen in the the "free" market and the iPhone AppStore, people are willing to download and even spend money on useless apps. I think as long as there is a market for this type of app we will continue to see them. Now, unfortunately that means we all have to deal with him, his apps, and others like him and his apps until either the Market allows for better filtering/sorting or a developer creates this for the community... It is much needed nonetheless.
[G1 Apps and Games] BSDADON:
thats awesome. if its anything like BarTor its going to be good
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
That's good to hear. What I meant is that the actual Market App itself cannot be modified to work the way we want it to. While being able to display Market data with filtering on a PC is nice, the bulk majority of users are still going to be suffering the standard Market app interface.

There will be more, that much I can assure you. As the Android platform grows, there will be more opportunist developers seeking to make a quick buck. It really is like spam. You throw a line out and because digital publishing is free, anything you get back is profit. There is basically no monetary risk involved in creating and distributing crapware. Atleast we won't have to suffer iPhone's idiotic ninety-nine cent "custom" name dialers. Although the number of soundboards posted daily is reaching dangerous limits...
[G1 Apps and Games] nEx.Software:
I intend to make it an Android app. While it won't be a permanent fix,it might be what is needed to get Google moving on updates to the official Market app.

Anyway, on another note. I haven't looked at any one of the apps in question but I would venture a guess that they are in violation of copyright laws and as we have seen with the Tetris clones, Google does take action on matters of copyright. Maybe the best recourse then is to inform this developer of the copyright issues either directly or through Google.

?
[G1 Apps and Games] faithnolonger:
Frankly i can't agree with having a dev (does this word really apply in this case) removed from the market for producing crap. However i am completely in favour of spamming his inbox with as much crap as i can possibly manage just to see how he likes it. Free porn search here i come!

Anyone wants to help it's --EMAIL REMOVED-- Yes this is a very childish response but i'm pissed with having to sift through his crap every morning, i think it's only fair!

Ideally google can resolve this issue by allowing to create a list of blocked developers. And the ability to block any apps containing the word soundboard would make my day
[G1 Apps and Games] nolageek:
nEx.Software an app that was basically cryket.com for the android would be awesome. What would really be sweet was if it had an independant comment system that was filterable as well. So we could ban commenters based on their username, words, etc... Filtering by ratings, developer, keywords, etc.. I love it already. Just link the products to their entries in the market. Basically, cryket for the android with comments... I CAN HAZ IT NOW PLZ K? :)
[G1 Apps and Games] nolageek:
Also, I'd love to add IndiaNIC, LLC to the filter list. I'm sure *someone* out there likes that they're putting out 300 e-books about India a day, but I'm sure tired of scrolling past them.
[G1 Apps and Games] KPeriod:
The last thing I'd want is to see rigorous policing on the Android Market. He's spreading expensive crapware but I'm sure people are buying it and I'm sure some actually enjoyed it. I don't think removing his apps from the market is the best solution, keep the market as free from censorship as possible if you ask me.

I think the best solution is market search filters as discussed above.
[G1 Apps and Games] ryan75:
I agree, the ability to "ignore" certain developers would be nice. The new developer I would instantly add to this list would be IndiaNIC, LLC. or whatever the hell they are called. They have about 40 apps on the market, and I don't think a single one has a comment.

/if anyone affiliated with IndiaNIC, LLC reads this, no offense, but please get the message when nobody is buying what you're selling
[G1 Apps and Games] Darkrift:
The more I think about it, the more I realize a filter would be a better idea than removing junk from the market. While I do not agree that anyone will find his apps useful, I do see the point in letting them choose. But at the same time we should be able to choose not to see his crap. As for IndiaNIC, I disagree with placing them in the same category. They have products with good ratings and seem to be making at least SOME useful apps. While I agree they put out too many at once, they seem to have a market for their apps unlike Khalid Shaikh.

Still, a filter would be better for all. I wish I could edit the poll now to add that as an option
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
Spammers don't need to "get the message"! They know exactly what they are selling (junk). The whole point is they are trying to make a quick buck. And in the immortal words of P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute."

Nevermind the fact that all of those texts can be downloaded for free from manybooks or feedbooks and then read on FBReaderJ...
[G1 Apps and Games] Darkrift:
That brings up another aspect I hadnt really thought of much. Where are these books/images coming from? Do these devs have permissiosn to be selling them?
[G1 Apps and Games] jonnybueno:
Yeah........ Right

I voted to remove him from the market, but only because I can't see google actually doing something to improve the browsing experience on the market.

It gets really hard to find apps which have names that I don't remember and a lot of these "junk" or spam apps make it really hard to find the things I'm looking for.

I don't support censorship, but given the way things have been going with android, I don't believe that Google will change things anytime soon.

It's not just his app either, there are countless apps that are completely useless on there, many of them are actually broken as well.

Some apps charge $$$ yet there are free alternatives... and it would be nice to see some of those relocated so they don't make it such a pain to browse...

Whats my point? None really.... It would be great to have some kind of filter as I don't see google banning a dev for crappy apps, but theyre probably saving that for 2.0 or RC69:p
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
Spam (both of the email and the app variety) exists for much the same reason the illegal drug trade exists: as long as there are consumers there will be suppliers. As long as there is one person out there who will pay $0.99 for a fart app or a soundboard, someone will rush in to fill that profiting opportunity. The best way to mitigate this problem without censorship is to find ways to better educate and inform the user. One of the main problems with spam is that it floods out the actual genuine good alternatives. In other words, the signal-to-noise ratio of the app store increases as spam increases. Of course then you run into the problem of "what do you consider noise?" This is a very subjective question and there's no black-and-white cutoff point that everyone agrees upon.

Some ways that Google can mitigate the sn ratio problem include adding a list of recommended similar apps to the bottom of each app description (similar to Amazon's system) or overhauling the recommended apps tab (maybe add a kind of "top reviewer" system, also similar to Amazon). I think there is no doubt that as Market evolves, it will gain these features. We the users and honest developers need to be persistent about this.
[G1 Apps and Games] jonnybueno:
I totally agree, but we all know thats not going to happen anytime soon.... That could've been implemented at the start, or even with the last update, but sometimes it seems that they don't care.

Look at it this way, many G1 users fall into one of categories.

1. Gadget dorks/developers/bored, semi-intelligent people

2. idiots who have T-mobile that want something like the sidekick only with a touchscreen :D

Google is a multi-billion dollar company, and to assume that T-mobile customer base would <b> not </b> spam the market is insane. Google should've known better.

The fix seems pretty simple, a few changes to the market would go a long way, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'd put more faith into Nex.Software then google.

Edit: If you make a petition to improve the market, I'd sign it. I'm starting to dislike the market, and I actually feel like the apps were better when everything was free. In fact, most of the apps i use are free apps.... I bought a whole crapload of apps, and they just sit there under "my downloads" waiting to be installed. I'm all for commerce, but right now the market is a bad bad place
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
Warning, incoming rant.

I think the concept behind Android is far ahead of its time. If (or some may say 'when') it succeeds and goes massive, it will be the first mainstream consumer operating system built on open source. It may sound trivial but repackaging to be consumer-friendly has been a major hurdle of the open source community for the last decade. The twin posterboys of consumer open source, Firefox and Ubuntu, still have a long ways to go to being considered mainstream.

Open-source software tends to assume that its users are above the lowest common denominator. It assumes the user is motivated, intelligent and exercises good intention. Unfortunately, that's not always the case in the real world. Google (particularly its Android team) may have great engineers and designers, but it seems that it doesn't have its feet on the ground in terms of understanding and dealing with the inevitable crap that will come from ignorant users and greedy ill-intentioned developers. In other words, open source tends to assume humanity is in general good, when in reality this world is chock full of sh-tbags.</rant>
[G1 Apps and Games] nEx.Software:
Yahoo Pipes - Proof of Concept - This gets the first page of Cyrket "Newest Content", and filters out any apps by our friend Khalid, any apps with "theme", "skin", "fart", or "soundboard" int the name, and all apps with a Rating lower than 3.00. Obviously there is still much to do, particularly in the way of creating an Android app that uses this information effectively. But I wanted to show that there is a working (albeit probably temporary) solution to this issue. Note: Only two of ten apps (as I am posting this) actually meet this criteria.
[G1 Apps and Games] question.com:
i agree 100%. hopefully google hooks it up with our own filters.
[G1 Apps and Games] bmfc187:
The beauty of android, and of open source, is that these guys have a right to put their hard work on the market. Its no one's place to judge what they're putting out...so you dont like it..then dont download it... by now we should know which apps are crap apps, which devs (like Khalid) put out such apps, etc. The solution is more than 2 categories on the market's main page. We all know there is a "demo" section inside the apps category, but when you select "all Applications", you still see all the apps in the demo sub-cat. But what IM talking about is that you DONT see games in the applications category...So why not add categories on the main page to heap all these apps in so they dont clutter the actual "Applications" category. Then when you first enter the market, you'll see:

Applications

Games

Themes

Slideshows

eBooks

Culture

Search

My Downloads

Or whatever they need to be called, but you get the idea...that way all these slideshows Khalid puts out can be in their own zone of the market where you dont hafta look at them EVER unless that's what you're looking for...Then you throw all the apps by IndiaNIC LLC into that Culture category, and that puts them outta sight and outta mind, as well...so lets petition google to do THAT...something useful...instead of asking google to endorse discrimination, ask them to fix the market system to let those devs make their quick buck(s), and at the same time make it so these devs arent FORCING you to look at all their crap...give them their own market sections...

So i hereby Start the Petition For Google to change the Market Structure to accomodate both crap-apps, AND haters of crap-apps!

1. BMFC

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Who's with me?!
[G1 Apps and Games] brandenk:
OMG, I didnt know about any of these awesome apps until this post! Thank you soooooooooo much!
[G1 Apps and Games] nEx.Software:
I'm almost certain that market does actually have two more main categories in addition to Applications and Games, but they wouldn't do much for use in this case. The two additional categories are Ringtones and Wallpapers. They just appear to not be implemented yet. I agree though that there needs to be more main categories.
[G1 Apps and Games] borodin1:
Yeah.. I say filters are the way, I get sick of flipping thru 12 dx top themes a day jus to find 12 aHome themes with one app in between (most likely from that one dude or IndiaLLC.

Give me filters... or give me death!!!!! jk, just give me filters :D
[G1 Apps and Games] Lieu10ant:
call him and tell him to stop. 4087123580
[G1 Apps and Games] Gimpeh:
And record the call!
[G1 Apps and Games] blackknightavalon:
You just described the biggest problem with Nut Board.
[G1 Apps and Games] AGx-07_162:
I simply think that the Market needs a few new categories or needs to be monitored so that App's go where they belong. I saw some kind of Trivia app in the "Applications" section. Trivia is usually categorized as a game and thats where I think it should go. Same thing with all those damned sound cards, they need to go in the games section too. Right underneath the farts, which are right underneath the flashlights....okay maybe we can keep the flashlights in Apps v_v
[G1 Apps and Games] zeezee:
Should be an "I dont care" option. Just dont buy the apps. If you were smart you wouldnt buy them, with him not making any money from them what the point in marketing them?

haha he tried to sell the Hello World app!:p
[G1 Apps and Games] UnkzDomain:
Yeah, there are a bunch of developers like this. Another one is this India NIC dev. As an Indian myself, it's pretty annoying to see someone spamming the market, releasing 10 apps at a time with only the text or images changed.

There definitely needs to be an option for filtering and stuff. Maybe user-configurable spam filters like in Gmail?
[G1 Apps and Games] jaboswell:
im pretty sure that he used to sell paid to click php website templates a few years ago when they were supposed to be the next thing in monetizing a website with advertisements.

but yea is apps look like they suck just by the title, when i see the name i just disregard it.
[G1 Apps and Games] charnsingh_online:
It is a open source market. ANybody has right to post any apps he wants. Rated low apps are not intended to be removed. Cmon guys he worked on them. HE did some work. Many of u can not even make a simple apps for the market. So please stop saying to remove the apps. He has the right to upload any app for any price he wants.
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
Wrong... The android market is even more dirty then my "Recycle bin" on my desktop is...

Im not saying im the best developer or something, but seriously id rather put something on here then upload it to the market and make my apps sit next to a pile of junk, hence that is why GScript and a lot of other stuff i create only show up for download in here and not on any market app...
[G1 Apps and Games] nolageek:
While I agree he has the right to post them, I think we should also have a way to filter his apps. It wouldn't be an issue if he wasn't posting so MUCH of this crap.
[G1 Apps and Games] Ryanmo5:
The only downfall to open source in my opinion is this issue, coupled with the fact the companies who usually make the best apps/games are nowhere to be found. When i had my dash games were all over the place and way better than the g1 games. Is it really that hard to come out with uno, scrabble, yahtzee for g1? Just using those as examples. Personally i would love to see him, the home app themes, fonts and icons, comic books and soundboards all go away!!! Home apps that offer free skins, fonts and icons should post them on there site and not in market in my opinion but thats just me. Either way i agree, he needs to go over to iphone market lol.
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
The Android Market isn't open source... it's closed source, which as a matter of fact is one of the reasons for this problem. Good try though.
[G1 Apps and Games] Ryanmo5:
Oops thats what i meant to say lol :D
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
:p

As for the good games that are iPhone exclusive right now... I reckon we'll see more of those once Android spreads to other devices and carriers. It's only a matter of time...
[G1 Apps and Games] jaboswell:
I dont care they are up there. I just overlook them or laugh at them....i dont buy them..it takes a talent to make apps so congrats to him but if you dont like the app than thats why they offer refunds..
[G1 Apps and Games] jashsu:
I don't think it is the crappy quality that piss people off. The problem is that due to the relative ease and little amount of time it takes to crank it out, crapware developers can flood the market, making it difficult to find the actual decent apps.
[G1 Apps and Games] jaboswell:
understand that....but than again if i cant find a xda user using an app and read some opinions about it i wont download it.
[G1 Apps and Games] haitiankid4lyf:
it should look more like this:

Applications

Games

Themes

Slideshows

eBooks

Culture

Search

My Downloads

BlackListed Developers

Blacklisted Keywords

now u got me

1. BMFC

2. haitiankid4lyf

3.

4.

5.

6.

call google i think we maybe on the verge of something big :D
[G1 Apps and Games] Proxin:
As much as I hate overpriced apps and spam in the market, if his apps get removed just because people don't like them, the market isn't really "open" anymore.

You have to take the bads with the goods, I'd rather have one person wasting his time and effort spamming the place and getting no income from it, while having a bunch of awesome apps and ability to upload apps, than have a closed-market like the iPhone's market and the PS Store.

Realistically, petitions do next to nothing but waste time. In order for it to be effective, the people in charge of the market would have to find this thread or petition wherever it is, and read through it. Who wants to waste their time doing that?? If you really want to impact them, you should e-mail the company themselves or to wherever you want this to go to, so they can't just ignore it and move on.

IF you were to make a petition at all, I'd petition to have more filters available in the market, and not to just remove one person's apps.
[G1 Apps and Games] dennis_ciuu:
The dev ''khalid shaikh'' he's a joke what he is doing is fraud he's using images from famous people and selling them, but i gues he thinks he's untouchable because he lives in Pakistan.

I seriously hate people like him he steals some bodys els there work and copyright material.

Dunno if any one try'd to contact Google?
[G1 Apps and Games] SolemnWishing:
I say we leave him alone.

Imagine this, you are a developer who thinks you are making good applications, then you receive an email signed by tons of people talking about how much we hate your work.

The market is an open place, If you don't like his apps, then don't buy them. There is no need to form a petition, that Google will probably ignore anyway. Everyone has a right to post their apps on the market even if YOU don't like them. Who are we to judge? I understand that we also have the right to petition, but ask yourselves, IS IT REALLY WORTH IT? I mean come one, seriously? The market is filled with hundreds of apps, is it that big of a deal?

You guys, think about it, is this something worth doing?
[G1 Apps and Games] lbcoder:
I agree that banning isn't the right approach.

More like proper market organization and strong search filtering on a profile basis. For categorization, I mean right at the root level: applications, games, stupid $hit. Also, allow users to vote for proper categorizations. When something overwhelmingly doesn't match the voted category, subject to review and recategorization. For profile based filtering, it would be nice to be able to have a rule list to filter out apps for different reasons, i.e. by permission requirements, by author, etc.

Note that there are already sub categories, but they are inconvenient at best. For example, if you want to check all the new applications listed in *some* categories (but not all), then you have to check by each category rather than being able to select the "all applications" button and have it leave out the stupid crap.
[G1 Apps and Games] nEx.Software:
I have a sneaky suspicion that there might be a Market filtering app in the Market very soon.
[G1 Apps and Games] Ryanmo5:
God i hope so, no more dictionaries, soundboards, comics and crap!!!
[G1 Apps and Games] dennis_ciuu:
Sure it's right to ban of remove him but still what he's doing is that right also he's fludding the market changing his name reposting a list of 20 apps* (*dumb ass collection of photo's) almost a day using pictures from famous people (copyrighted material) and selling them for 4.99(more of trying only sale he's making is refunded in the hour) I'm realy not saying to ban him there are people who are just starting to code and post there silly apps but khalid is fully aware what's he's doing. he even thinks is got a business plan Google khalid and you'll find post of him looking for investors because he got 100 android apps that are selling like hot buns ''-.- NOT.

I really hope there's filter coming soon where you can put a dev on your own blacklist or some sort.
[G1 Apps and Games] Carloswithac:
I petition to get rid of your gigantic signature. It's annoying me.
[G1 Apps and Games] savethechicken:
my 2cents are that you should have a third option in the poll. something like whos cares just skip over his ish.... because that would also be an option. i would care if he is banned. I dont even look at the apps I just simply scroll past them to the next app on the list....
[G1 Apps and Games] nEx.Software:
Search the Market for Market Pipe.
[G1 Apps and Games] DAKIDD236:
thats just like aHome spamming the market with thousands of theme applications.
[G1 Apps and Games] jcohenlv:
The man has a right to develop apps. Maybe we should stop you from posting this gibberish on the forum.

[ ] I would like this thread removed

[ ] I dont care its a joke

[ ] Keep the thread in the forum

Doesn't feel good doe it ?
[G1 Apps and Games] jcohenlv:
They arent Spam, they are themes. Some people dont want to root their phone and still want to be able to theme it. Just cause there are 10000 theme developers out there cause its easy to do. Does not mean its spam.

There are good and bad themes. I am guilty of making some bad ones.

Who are you to judge?

how about you ***** about the 50000000 flashlight apps on the market, how about you compain about Open home since aHome came first?

What about dxTop?

Its not spam, it called open source. get used to it.