External services: the "good" ones and the "bad" ones

In this post various external services, grouped by different categories (see below) are listed. At the beginning, this list has been made by Italian AlterVista users who thought that similar services offered by AV itself were not suitable for their needs.

We have highlighted the services you can safely use, and also listed some others who could harm your site or your visitors.

Help us to extend and maintain up-to-date this list, by using the submission topic in this forum (or the Italian one, if you feel more comfortable with the Italian language).

How to read
Any item is listed by following these guidelines:
- in black bold font if the community considered the tool safe to use ("good")
- in red bold italic font if the tool has been considered unsafe to use ("bad")
It is indicated:
1. The language of the service: [DE] German - [EN] English - [ES] Spanish - [FR] French - [IT] Italian - [PL] Polish - [PT] Portuguese - [RU] Russian - [TR] Turkish
2. The name of the service
3. The URL (address) of the service:
- in a clickable form (http://fake-link.com/) if it has been judged as "good"
- in an unclickable form (h**p://fake-link.com/) if it has been judged as "bad"
An optional description for the service follows, if submitted by the users.

Guestbooks
(no submissions yet)

Counters and statistics
[DE] [EN] [ES] [FR] [IT] Histats - http://www.histats.com/
You can insert the counter code by copying and pasting a single line of HTML code. Through the control panel you can customize the data shown to your visitors (many other facts are accessible in the same control panel) and the counter style (including an "invisible counter" mode). The collected statistics can only be reset and no managed in other way. No Ads are placed on sites who host their counter.

[DE] [EN] [ES] [FR] [IT] ShinyStat - http://www.shinystat.com/
Another stats counter, less complete than HiStats in its "free" version. Also there isn't an "invisible counter" option.

[EN] SiteMeter - http://www.sitemeter.com/
A good service that causes no damages to your visitors. Among its features: visitors' world map, referrer, entry and exit pages and many other details.

[EN] [ES] [IT] freestat.ws - h**p://freestat.ws
Insert trojans and similar stuff in hosting sites.

[DE] [EN] [FR] [IT] freestats.ws - h**p://freestats.ws
Inserts trojans and similar stuff in hosting sites.

[EN] [ES] [IT] MegaStat - h**p://www.megastat.net/
Inserts dialers, redirects and many other bad stuff. It's a "Schinystat" clone.

[EN] [ES] [IT] MyStat - h**p://www.mystat.ws/
Inserts dialers, redirects and pop-ups.

[EN] [ES] [IT] Schinystat - h**p://www.schinystat.com/
Inserts viruses in your site. Notice a Shinystat typosquatting: that one really works!

[EN] [ES] [IT] SpecialStat - h**p://www.specialstat.com/
Inserts dialers, redirects and many other bad stuff.

[EN] [ES] [IT] Statistiche Web - h**p://www.statistiche.ws/
Inserts dialers, redirects and pop-ups.

[EN] [ES] [IT] SuperStat - h**p://www.superstat.info/
Inserts dialers, redirects and many other bad stuff. It's a "Schinystat" clone.

[IT] TheStat - h**p://www.thestat.net/
Inserts dialers, redirects and many other bad stuff. It's a "Schinystat" clone.

[IT] TheStat - h**p://www.payperstats.com/ -- site not available
Inserts malware.

[EN] [ES] [IT] WebMeter - h**p://www.webmeter.ws/
Inserts dialers, redirects and many other bad stuff. It's a "Schinystat" clone.

[EN] [ES] [IT] WebStat - h**p://www.webstat.ms/
Inserts dialers, redirects and many other bad stuff. It's a "Schinystat" clone.

Mailing lists and newsletters
(no submissions yet)

Polls and surveys
[EN] Sparklit - http://www.sparklit.com/
It allows to manage small surveys via web. The webmaster should compose the survey as he/she likes (questions, answers, colours and so on) and then copy and paste some HTML code in his/her site. Data about answers and voters are stored by Sparklit. Also, the site hosting the survey must show a mini-banner by Sparklit, and the external page with the surveys results has an ad in it.

E-mail aliases
[EN] CJB.net - http://www.cjb.net/
It is possible to register some @yourname.cjb.net e-mail aliases, and to forward e-mail to different address as well as the same e-mail address. Mapping e-mails to specific aliases is also possible.

URL redirection
[EN] CJB.net - http://www.cjb.net/
With this free service it is possible to shorten the own website URL, by inserting the chosen page in a frameset reachable with the address nomeutente.cjb.net. The chosen page can be changed at any time (very useful if you move your site in another hosting). The redirect loads an ad page over the frameset (you just need to close it to visit the real site).

File sharing services
(have a look at these services before using AlterVista as file repository for other web sites...)
[EN] EasyCaptures - http://easycaptures.com/
Despite of the essential home page, it's a service which allows to share your own browser screenshots, and to embed them in your site as a thumbnail or in their full size. It provides an add-on for Firefox (unfortunately on Windows only) e Internet Explorer, FireShot. You have to register in this site in order to store your screenshots.

[DE] [EN] [ES] [FR] [IT] [PL] [PT] [RU] [TR] ImageShack - http://imageshack.us/
A weel-known image hosting service: it allows to share and to embed them in your pages and in most discussion forums, in full size or as a thumbnail with link to the full image. You don't need to register in order to store your images, but you'll have to do it if you like to manage your uploads.

External forums
[EN] Activeboard by Sparklit - http://www.activeboard.com/
The forum in its free version is customizable also by modifying the CSS style and by changing language (the backend will still remain in English). It allows the creations of categories and forums, but not sub-forums. A ad banner is placed on each page of your forum.

External databases compatible with AlterVista
(no submissions yet)

Internal search tools
(no submissions yet)

Other services
[IT] Guadagni previsti su AlterVista (Expected earnings on AlterVista) - http://toninosite.altervista.org/tools-online/stat/
The site in its sections "tools online" allows to compute the expected earning from AlterVista advertising.