Posting Policy & Recommended Threads

[LowWaterMark]

Posting Policy Statement - Antivirus Software
Members should not start topics in this section asking "Which is the better or faster or lighter or whatever?" or make comparison threads setting one Antivirus product against another (i.e. this vrs. that). Also, topics asking simply "What should I use?" and listing some or several products, is considered the same thing, just worded differently. Topics such as those require no thought, always produce the same arguments, and never resolve anything. Any topic of those types posted in this section will be closed by the forum staff. (The reason for this rule is to get people to put some thought into their posts, and not ask some unclarified "what is best?" or "what should I use?" type of question, or to pit some AV products against each other, then sit back and watch the fun as their fans race to argue with each other.)

For additional clarification on this policy, please see: this post, this post and this post (for what it's not).

There are many threads in this forum containing large amounts of information on every major antivirus product. Reading existing threads will likely yield more than enough facts, member opinions and test results for members to make informed decisions as to which product to try for themselves.


About YouTester video test publications

A new thing is being seen now where people are producing YouTube videos ( YouTesters ) of their private tests of anti-virus or anti-malware programs. We had a few long threads about these tests in early 2010. I finally closed the biggest one with this new policy decision.

Now a days, anyone can publish their videos to the world using YouTube. That's great, however, it also means that anyone can proclaim themselves an expert tester and have links to their YouTube tests or channel published all over the forums. In some regards, this can be considered click-thru spam, to drive traffic to up their video view counts. In other cases, they pit two products against each other in a video version of a This vs That debate. A this versus that is no better because it is presented in a video instead of text in a forum post. So, by policy, we prefer to not publish YouTester videos here.


About "home-grown" malware tests

This forum does not encourage people to collect malware samples or produce their own anti-malware detection tests. If people do want to do that, then do not post your results here. See this thread for more on this policy.



The following are links to some of the more useful threads in this forum section...


Former Sticky Threads
History of Virii vs Antivirus War! - Technodrome


Reporting & Resources
E-mails for submitting samples to AV companies (2.0)
E-mails for submitting samples to AV companies (1.0)
Official AV product Support Forums
Removal Tools for all Antivirus Programs


Other Interesting Threads
Antivirus Testing Workshop: thread 1 and thread 2
List of FREE Antivirus Products
Screenshots from various Antivirus Products
Download links for AV definitions updates


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Please let me know if there are additional threads you believe should be added to this posting.