im creating (as i type, well, not really. my computer may be able to, but i cant multitask.. (btw, aparently males are worse at multitasking than females...what a croque!! ;) )...anyway..where was i?? i yeah...i am creating (as i ty..*STOP IT!!!*) a new feature for the dink network. its a resource to allow developers easy access to beta testers, to try to reduce the number of releases before dev. files hit a stable release.



basically, everyone (who wants to participate) will have to sign up, and supply a username, password, email addr, and wether they want to be a tester,developers, or both.



then, when developers want some testers, they log into the system, and request some testers. then, the system will assign X number of testers to them, and send an email to teh testers, informing them of their obligation to..well..test!!!



once the testing is over for that particular project, those testers will go back into the pool of testers. If people feel capable of testing more than one file at once, they can say so on the signup.



this means several things:



  • Signing up is serious. if you can test, and you are called up to test, you really should test, because its like you have promised the developers that you are available to test. it will be easy to change your status to not test for a certain period. (like when you're goin on holiday, etyc. etc. etc.).


  • Developers are encouraged to sue the system responsably. This means not registering two projects when there is only one, not asking for testers twice in a row. Testers can be veiwed as a resource. there has to be enough to go around everyone. The program will decide how many testers to give, depending on the number of developers, vs. the number of testers. (this could get tricky with more developers thant here are testers, unless ppl sign up to test more than one file at once...)






SO yeah, now im asking for comments. i have redink's assurance that this will be supported by the network, so as soon as ive got my thoughts together (can take quite a while), ill start the development.



also, ppl are welcome to assist in the development, esp. if you are good with mysql. you'd probably have to run linux though, to thwart any dependancy problems...



so please, post your comments, what do you think? will you use the system, any ideas for additional features?? etc. etc. etc.



thanks.