Gave my feedback on this concern 2 months ago here: p/2552554

But basically, I feel it silly requiring "payment" to test and give feedback about pre-release features and fixes... Wouldn't you want as many actually knowledgeable people as-possible to give feedback on technical changes?

The original purpose for test build is to allow supporters access to new features. Only recently has reporting issues related to test build been encouraged. It very well could happen.

I'm happy to let people give me that kind of feedback when changes are pushed to the public build for now.

I'd understand it if you would ask that one year ago - because we only had PayPal and many does not have access to it by various reasons. But for today it's easy peasy to get a Supporter Tag. At least if the person decides to pay for it. However I fully agree with TVO's post. But also the feedback from the non-Supporter is important when the updates comes out in the public build. The Test build is - at least it looks like - more about fixing issues and bugs before something gets public.

There's no point for a test build if it's openly available to the public.

Stefan wrote:

...The Test build is - at least it looks like - more about fixing issues and bugs before something gets public.

The way I look at it is, new features should be introduced to the Test Build, for testing-related purposes, and then brought over to the Public Build once it's tested to be as problem-free as possible.

Rorona wrote:

There's no point for a test build if it's openly available to the public.

Lets take Steam for example. It has a Beta opt-in that lets people try out the new features. These new features can (and probably do) have bugs that need ironed out first before the new feature would be thrown onto the Stable build, and the best way to track down bugs is to get feedback from a wide variety of users who actually want to test out the feature. Getting into Steam's beta is as easy as toggling a setting and restarting it; no separate account, no "donation" needed.

As for a more extreme example, look at operating systems. Windows 8 had a Developer Preview and a Consumer Preview, which Microsoft used to gather feedback and collect and fix as many bugs as possible before the actual launch. Various Linux distributions provide alpha/beta/repository installation media to test upcoming version releases before the final release too. Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander launched recently, and already Ubuntu is providing daily images for testers and developers to mess with for the next version 14.04 Trusty Tah. Just think how less the feedback would be if you had to pay to use those test/preview/alpha/beta operating systems...

A lot of programs and games have nightly/daily and test servers available too. Take a look at World of Warcraft's PTR (private test realm). I'm pretty sure a lot of people would be upset if buggy, non-widespread tested features were implemented in the public realms, especially if they're paying a subscription.

peppy wrote:

I'm happy to let people give me that kind of feedback when changes are pushed to the public build for now.

I suppose if you're happy with the current system, that's fine.

The main recent features I was interested in testing were the revamped OpenGL renderer, and some mouse fix for Windows 8.1 (which afaik didn't help what seems to be only one person on the thread). The last time I donated for supporter status was mainly only to test the OGL renderer (I happened to have $4 lying around), which I still didn't find too ethical at the time, but decided to just do it anyway (probably isn't helping my argument too well though :p).

I understand my current model is kind of reversed, but have no interest in changing it for the moment.