Author: Eddie
Date: 10:31:56 09/05/00
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On September 05, 2000 at 12:04:50, Enrique Irazoqui wrote: >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 I think it would be an "honor" to be a tester for these great programs! :))
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