On Sat, 3 Sep 1994, Patrick Stecker wrote: > >Not to criticize, but I never understood this logic of making releases > >to limited numbers of people. If people are anxious to try the code, > >and they understand it comes with bugs and such, why not just make > >every release public? Its not _that_ much more troublesome to do. > >People can upgrade as more versions are released. *shrug* Maybe I'm > >missing something. > > Reason is (Correct me if I'm wrong), that no matter how many > times you say "This is a BETA release, there are bugs" etc etc, you're > email will ALWAYS get flooded with "This doesn't work!! This doesn't > work!! Why are there bugs? I found a bug, why is it there" etc etc. I > used to run a bbs and I'd release beta versions of a game I made with > the understanding that it was buggy, I stated it in the program itself, > in a text "readme" file, and the post/file_id.diz etc etc. But I stil > get a bunch of complaints rather than constructive bug reports etc. > Jeremy seems to be a busy man and I don't blame him for doing it > (Although I would LIKE for it to be publically released so I can modify > the living daylights out of this vanilla code :), but I understand where > he's coming from). It may not be troublesome to do so at first, but > when you get 10000 mail in one day about some silly question that > could've been answered by reading the readme file, etc, it becomes a > burden and nothing gets done because he's busy answering mail or reading > mail. Jeremy, if this is not the reason, then tell me to shut up ;). So its an e-mail issue then. I guess I could buy that reasoning (maybe). Although numbers like 10,000 sound like an exaggeration to me. :) Perhaps releasing versions without Jeremy's address attached to them would solve that problem (if it exists). All I know is that a lot of people have been waiting to use, debug and get involved with circle 3.0 (or any other circle improvements) for a _long_ time now. You may say "let them wait", but I just have to wonder why? > Patrick > -- > "A poem: a story in meter or rhyme." > 'Ahh. "There once was a man from Nantucket..."' > "You've been talking to Garibaldi again, haven't you?" > -- Delenn and Sinclair, "The Gathering" ##=====================###================================================## || Joshua Sky Barrow ||| Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Science || ##=====================###================================================## || 19 Central St., #28 ||| "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. || || Somerville, MA ||| If you can dream it, you can become it." || || 02143-3832 ||| Unknown || ##=====================###================================================## || (617) 666-0859 ||| E-mail: jsbarrow@fas.harvard.edu || ##=====================###================================================##
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