Author: Enrique Irazoqui
Date: 10:46:53 09/05/00
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On September 05, 2000 at 13:31:56, Eddie wrote: >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! :)) You blew it. Instead of using quotation marks you should have wrote Honor. Nah, you'll never make it to the top... :) Enrique
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