JARS - The Java Applet Rating Service is a review service that uses in-house personnel as well as an independent group of skilled judges to review Java(tm) applets and applications. Additionly, we maintain a database of program submissions that will function as your guide to the best Java programs the Web has to offer.
The JARS reviews give you unique and real world descriptions and ratings of the innovative technologies that the World Wide Web offers. We offer so much more than your typical repository/directory. You can be assured that either our in-house or independent group of Java capable and experienced individuals have looked at each program, and although not all knowing chances are they have concluded correctly the rating of your program as it compares to most of the other applets and applications on the Web using our rating criteria.
Our mission is to show-case the good stuff, save you time, and help you to find the cream of the crop amongst this new and innovative software technology.
JARS rates Java based applets and applications and other Internet-related software. We also rate commercial and personal Web pages containing the use of these technologies, although policy dictates that these be scored as a general "rated" rating unless they have distinguished themselves with quality, unique, and innovativeapplets.
JARS makes no distinction between commercial, private, or student submitted programs. Quality and innovation are amongst some of the attributes we look for.
Functionality/Performance: (Usefulness- to the net, ease of use, known bugs, operation, stability, etc... )
Originality: (Uniqueness- new concept, new idea, improvement, Innovative, usage, need/reasoning, etc...)
SCORING:
Presentation (MAX) points possible = 200.00 AppletPerfect (MAX) points possible = 300.00 Function (MAX) points possible = 200.00 Originality (MAX) points possible = 300.00
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE = 1000.00
A Top 1% Web Applet score equal to or better than 990.00 A Top 5% Web Applet score equal to or better than 950.00 A Top 25% Web Applet score equal to or better than 750.00 Rated Web Applet all applets receiving a score below 750.00 -----------------------------------------------------------
THE NO SOURCE AWARDS (No Source code publically available)
Functionality/Performance: (Usefulness- to the net, ease of use, known bugs, operation, stability, etc... )
Originality: (Uniqueness- new concept, new idea, improvement, Innovative, usage, need/reasoning, etc...)
SCORING: Presentation (MAX) points possible = 400.00 Function (MAX) points possible = 300.00 Originality (MAX) points possible = 300.00
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE = 1000.00
A Top 1% Web Applet score equal to or better than 990.00 A Top 5% Web Applet score equal to or better than 950.00 A Top 25% Web Applet score equal to or better than 750.00 Rated Web Applet all applets receiving a score below 750.00
Our policy is to post reviews continuously and as soon as possible. From our previous experience the current normal waiting period for the rating to be completed and posted ranges from 30 to 90 days. We are attempting to incorporate measures to shorten the rating period to less than 21 days.
If you have a submission that is older than 1 year and has not been rated, you can send an email to webmaster@jars.com to request that the submission be bumped bumped on the review list. We will then ask our judges to look at your submission quickly.
No. JARS uses an independent group of judges for the actual reviews. These judges are dedicated volunteers. Those who make our list of qualifying judges do so with the understanding that they may not review any applet they have a personal or business interest in. Our advertisers have no say in how and which way programs are reviewed.
We absolutely refuse to alter our reviews in exchange for gifts or monetary gain. At least, we have so far. But it might be worth a try. Some of our honest judges have been offered a bribe or two. At the most our judges may accept a bribe such as a cup of Cafe. Such a bribe, however, won't have any impact on the review they give.
Not at this time. There has been a consideration for JARS to offer a program in the near future that will allow commercial establishments to get personalized product reviews from our independent judges. These wwould be fee based committee anonymous reviews, keeping the independent judges identity secret.
If a commercial product is submitted via the standard submission process, then it will be treated as a normal review item.
The number of JARS judges varies at any given time. This has ranged to as many as 100 judges. As such, we use a number of systems and configurations. We feel that our judges are very representative to real world conditions in the use of equipment. Should you know of system incompatability issues you are notified that you should post any bugs and/or system incompatabilities on your applet's primary page.
The JARS judges review all submissions. They use a variety of browsers and systems, please be sure to post on your site any browser incompatability issues as this could possibly effect the final score of the program.
This could be due to several factors. First of all you must remember that this is not an end all determination, please take our reviews with a sense of humor, a grain of salt and plenty of Cafe. This because sometimes it may seem to make no sense at all. Especially when we review your pet project and you feel slighted by our review. We want you to know that there is no reason to purposely grant low scores to any programs. On the contrary we want to showcase and show off the programs that we believe are a cut above the rest. With that in mind in order that we may continue to prosper it behoves us to be as consistent and fair in reviewing all submissions. Should you receivea low score just look at some of the other high scoring examples and try to implement some of the same features into your program. Of course you want to have that extra punch that makes yours stick out from the field. Above all be sure to take inplenty of HotJava!
We regret that we don't offer individual critiques of programs.
Some Do's & Dont's The following may result in lowered ratings:
Applet offline during the review period.
Applets with unusually slow download time, especiallyif it is because it is large and is something like 300Kb of code
It is an exact replica or very similar applet to a previously known applet.
Scrolling text, ticker tapes, Othello, Blackjack, run of the mill animations, and some others that have become very common place and if they offer nothing new and innovative.
Please make sure that when you submit an applet with the source code the code is actually available. Class files and zip files (unless the zip) file contains the actual source code, are not to be considered sourcecode. Should you submit an applet with source and the source is not available it will cost you points with the judges. This occurs becauseof the way our grading system is setup.
Please submit your applet with documentation in English. The judges are all English capable, it is important that they are able to understand your program. This is very important!
The following may result in better ratings:
Intuitive and very easy user interface.
Unusual and highly functional applets.
Applets offering very compact and small code size.
We hope that it does not get to that stage and that you will participate regardless of our rating. However, we will not merely remove links due to disagreement with our review. We will not be swayed by these tactics. We do have the ability to change and remove links due to other reasons.
Yes! The cost of running and maintaining JARS is covered by advertising. Pleasecontact us for additional details if you wish to advertise. If you send an email to webmaster@JARS.com with your location (country/state) and contact information. We will have the appropriate sales person contact you.
