Have you ever found a GitHub project or anything that seemed nice and tempting to install until you dug a bit deeper?

What are some red flags that should detur anyone from installing and running something?

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
    32·
    7 hours ago

    That’s not the case at all. For ads, perhaps, but in application purchases? Many games (especially free to play games, of which there are many excellent ones) have purchases you can make in the game.

    Helldivers 2 is an excellent game, and that has DLC packs and individual items you can purchase in game. So does World of Tanks (which is also free to play).

    Even some perfectly normal applications have that tag, because there’s a shareware version (maybe with a launch nag “Ad”) and the full paid version (which may only cost a few quid), that you can upgrade to from within the free version. It still counts, even if it’s just a one time thing.

    There are many scummy practices some game/application makers employ using ads or in-app purchases, but many don’t, and both types have that sort of label applied.

    Honestly, I see that label applied to basically everything these days, so I just ignore it and judge the application based on the nuance of how their monetisation is presented.