Forums General Discussion General comment about the beta process

I really would appreciate if Khaled and/or Tjerk would reply to this to perhaps let the mIRC users in on the rationale behind mIRC's beta testing process.

It is apparent to me that with the release of mIRC 6.1, that the beta testing process being currently employed is no longer effective. What I am suggesting is not a public beta system, which based on the fact that it has been suggested numerous times and never actually implemented I'm assuming Khaled is opposed to; but rather a more open beta testing system. What I'm suggesting is that Khaled and/or Tjerk should recruit new testers. It is my belief that the current beta testers are either not doing enough testing, or they are just not very good at testing. I'm not saying there should be a "sign up to be a beta tester" form, I'm saying more/new beta testers should be selected. How exactly new testers are selected, well I guess that would be up to Khaled/Tjerk, but I do really think it needs to be done.

In addition to this suggestion, I would like to ask Khaled/Tjerk a few questions about the beta testing system currently in use.
1.) Approximately how many people are beta testers?

2.) How far in advance before the release of 6.1 were they given beta versions?

3.) What kind of qualifications do these testers have? (i.e., are they programmers who would know what kind of bugs are common, long time mIRC users who are intimately familiar with the way mIRC works and how to use it, or are they guys who happen to know Khaled in real life?)

4.) How many beta versions (on average) are released before a final build?

5.) Are new "major releases" intended to be a form of unofficial beta? (this is based on the pattern that after a N.X release, an N.XX release follows within a few weeks in most of the recent releases)

6.) Why has information about the beta process been kept so secret?

7.) Why is Khaled so opposed to allowing more people to help out testing mIRC?


I really would appreciate (and I assume the majority of the mIRC users would as well) if Khaled/Tjerk could respond to this post; I feel these are questions that really are deserving of having an official answer.