Okay, I went to that thread, and here are the problems I feel (IMO) are the problems.Torr Samaho wrote:, people just stopped using the automatic testing system. And now we apparently reached a point where people actually forget that that testing system exists, even though I explicitly tried to advertise it not too long ago, see here for instance.
NOTE: The "..." is not a *sigh*
<Torr Samaho> ... "Here is the new 2.0 beta" ...
Problem here is 1) that no one knows to come here to see your message, and 2) the person feels they have to do something special (from here) to to test something, when the player would prefer not to and would rather just continue their normal routine of using doomseeker to connect to a server that is automatically updated for them.
<Torr Samaho> ... "Be sure" ...
Problem here is that this already sounds like a person needs to be careful, thereby feeling like more effort is required on their part to do this.
<Torr Samaho> ... "test this build thoroughly" ...
Problem here is that the person is being asked to be thorough, thereby feeling more effort is required.
<Torr Samaho> ... "it would be great if" ...
Problem here is that the person reading this feels like something isn't complete yet, thereby feeling they don't need to begin their testing yet.
<Torr Samaho> ... "and the players activate the automatic testing feature in their launcher" ...
Problem here is 1) that players don't know how to activate this, and 2) they are being asked to do something extra -- which isn't that bad, if you said "you only need to do this once." too.
Solution: Make doomseeker default to having this activated.
<Torr Samaho> ... "use the beta servers" ...
Problem here is that this statement can be interpreted in different ways, mainly interpreted as that the person needs to do something "special" to "use beta servers", when really all you're merely saying is to connect to a server (like you normally do) that is flagged as beta.
Solution: Clarify that this is not some special action, and that the person connects to a beta server as they normally do when connecting to any server. Simply join any server from the list, that is flagged as a beta server. Or best to not even say any of this at all.
http://zandronum.com/download#betas
Problem here is that 1) this page is telling players to do a bunch of stuff, and 2) the stuff being said isn't even how to do beta testing.
<Cruduxy> "You have to teach those people to use the feature though haha. Now you'll have to teach how" ...
Problem here is that people read this and believe they need to be taught something special to do, to do testing, thereby feeling more effort is required.
<Torr Samaho> "First Doomseeker and IDE actually need to do something with the additional information ;)."
Problem here is that a person reads this and feels something isn't done yet, thereby feeling they won't start testing yet.
<Combinebobnt> "I'll bother" ...
See here "bother" is a sign of "effort" required.
<Zalewa> "We've just released an update" ...
Problem here is that people aren't coming to this thread to see this, and if they did -- not sure what this post really means. I believe people would prefer to see this message in Doomseeker, and click a link to update. Or better yet, be forced to update.
---
Another problem is that doomseeker doesn't force updates, therefore many people will not update because it's optional. I understand that making it optional is good -- but on the other hand, it's hurting us. It's my belief that many users will ignore the "Update" button, because that requires effort and person feels also there is possibility something can go wrong and doesn't (and never) want to deal with that possibility. Also the person has no reason (him/herself) to do an update if Doomseeker is already working fine for them.
Solution: Force updates.
---
Another Solution: Make doomseeker be setup for beta testing by default, pointing to something that auto-updates, etc. Same concept of how it points to a master server by default.
---
---
---
After all this, I still don't know how to easily test a build, and there are no servers running a test build.
---
Recommendation: Utilize both forums and Doomseeker for providing these posts/updates to users. Users do not frequent the forums as much as you'd like them to. They frequent Doomseeker.