We would certainly source a lot of our beta testers from TA as it is obvious that they really get behind the devs and it is awesome to have that support, and hopefully we can provide the same level of support in return! In fact most of our Rune Mage beta testers were from TA and even though we were only trying to collect gameplay metrics they also provided heaps of excellent advice about the game itself which has been used to shape gameplay as we've been developing.
??? I've filed reports or comments on both the betas that I'm involved with, and I haven't filled out my bio. I don't get the correlation there. Ratings are not fool proof either. A developer could have a personal beef with someone and consequently rate them low. This is not a "bitterness" remark, by the way, because I haven't had it happen to me (yet). I'm just saying it's possible. Can a registered developer look at comments that people have put on other betas?
As a dev the bio thing does make sense, it shows they've gone to the effort to promote themselves and it also gives an insight into how eloquently they can get a point across which is pretty important when beta testing! A lot of people who are just after a free game won't be bothered going to the effort. Developers are wonderful people who never have a beef with anyone Seriously though, it would be useful to see exactly why a tester has been given a poor rating. I doubt whether devs would have access to comments on others devs betas.
I used ibetatest before and from a devs point of view it wasnt the smartest move. Most beta testers on that site just signed up for the hell of it. No one i used helped me at all and none of them knew what i needed them to look for. I would stick with using TA to look for beta testers and only chose those who are members or senior members. If that doesnt work then i would contact other devs and find out who they used as their testers. Ibetatest should screen anyone who signs up for their site inorder to ensure that a devs app is tested properly. Hope this helps
For what good reason would a developer have a beef with a tester? If they didn't do well or didn't help at all they have the right to rate them low. What developer would actually have a beef with a tester, unless the tester wasted a spot by not testing and saying the game sucked. Now you ???????? me!
Okay, clearly you've got some issues, but don't make this a personal attack. The question marks were in regards to saying that a developer shouldn't pick someone that didn't fill out their bio. As for the part about developers having a beef with someone, I have known developers to get bent out of shape just because they didn't like constructive criticism. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I completely agree that a beta tester should be rated low if they didn't help or do well, but that wasn't what I was talking about. I do appreciate the maturity of your reply, however. I'm pretty sure "Now you ????? me!" is what, like 5th grade reasoning...
He's just pulling your chain, don't worry about it It is definately true that some devs get bent out of shape when receiving constructive criticism but I think that most understand the value of an outsiders opinion and receive it graciously so long as it is given in a friendly manner. I would like to think that instances of devs responding to feedback with negative ratings would be very very low. Especially since the feedback is normally in a private environment.
And thanks for all your comments about ibetatest.com and beta testing in general, much obliged (I just realized I've watched The Wire too much). The more I read the comments in this thread, the more confident I get that we'll stick to hand pick beta testers from here, which is nice, since we do love TA and the people here.
I wouldn't totally rule out ibetatest.com, because as the site matures I think it will become a valuable resource. I think you will be making the right decision to hand pick for your next project yet, however. Good luck, and hopefully you'll get what you're looking for testing wise.
I've been on iBetaTest since it opened and participated in a few beta tests. I have not once received a beta tester rating despite providing constructive criticism and coming up with ideas for the developer to improve their app. Note: I never created a bio. Also, I noticed a lot of "testers" were testing to merely get a "free app". Until (if and when?) the developer of iBetaTest hammers out all the problems there, you're better off handpicking testers here at TA. The people here are more likely to be helpful, and truthful.
Well in any spot you will have to be careful about who is doing testing. People everywhere want to test just to get a freebie before other people. The advantage of using ibetatest over TA is that there is a bug tracking tool (of sorts). Tracking bugs through pm's or email would be a bit of a nightmare IMHO That said - its a free site so if you feel better to recruit on TA, then you can use ibetatest for a closed beta group
This is off topic in regards to getting testers, but it sort of goes along with the discussion. Once you've "assigned a slot" to someone by including their UDID in a provisional file, is there no way to take that slot back? Are the UDIDs associated with a particular application somehow registered with Apple? if this is something that can't be discussed here then no problem, but I've always been curious about that.
Most of the beta tests I have participated in have proved successful with the availability of a private forums in which testers can post bugs/glitches and ideas/suggest game features. Also, if you require participation on the forum, you can see who is active, and who isn't.
It's pretty easy to setup a basic forum, doesn't take that long. There a bunch of free ones (the one TA uses is a commercial one). Yup, it's possible.
The UDID is unique to your device. It is stored on Apple's dev site where the provisioning files are generated using a web interface. We devs have control over that stuff and can delete and add UDID's as we like. You can use 100 UDID's per provisioning file and app.
Thanks for the details. So while it would be annoying and a waste of time on the developer's part, it is possible to get rid of deadbeat "testers" simply by creating a new provisioning file, right?
