Author: Enrique Irazoqui
Date: 09:04:50 09/05/00
One day someone may write a book about the sociology of computer chess. Well, maybe the topic is not interesting enough for a book, but at least an article could be fascinating. A few paragraphs should relate to beta-testing and the relationship between CC freaks and programmers. Fernando: are you interested? Months ago, Uri posted that he expected to be paid for his collaboration with the development of chess programs. It made me smile, because beta-testing is supposed to be a privilege for the tester, although I never quite understood why it works this way. But it does. From one day to the next, a freak may be promoted to the "in" circle, improve his status to the imaginary rank of expert and get the ensuing ego-booster, but he has to pay a price. I have seen private emails from beta-testers published without permission when it was commercially convenient; beta-testers demoted as no-team members; beta-testers forced to write commercially useful stuff for the honor of spending X (when X tends to very many) hours hunting for bugs and checking the engine. Etc. It would seem a matter of common sense to assume, as Uri did, that collaborating in the improvement of a commercial product is a paid job, but in computer chess it is the other way round, even if the tester doesn't pay with money but in species. I have received over the years quite a few betas, but I always made clear that I would play with them for my own fun and in the way I was interested in, at my own whimsical pace, and that I was thoroughly incompetent as a tester (I am). A few times I declined, shame on me, the honor of beta-testing. Certainly the idea of getting paid for what in my case was a no-job didn't cross my mind, but the hierarchical relationship programmer-tester didn't either. Still, this kind of relationship seems to be quite common. Why would that be this way, why a person feels promoted and agrees to pay for the promotion. Strange, isn't it? Enrique
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