suggestion to developers: please release beta-6

[StuG]

Why would the developers bother to release a "quick" B6 when they already have such a, comparatively speaking, stable product?
There are enough people running CVS snapshots (yeah, I know, some of you don't think there are enough people) to report any major bugs. At least I would think anybody who is willing to download snapshots on a daily basis is probably doing some pretty heavy testing of the software.
70something bugs I would say is minimal for a product of this magnitude, and also tells me that most of the "biggies" have been sorted.
So, with that being said, why wouldn't they release RC1 to the general public, support it, and find out from people that don't think "like a developer/programmer" if there are any other issues that need resolved?
That just makes more sense to me.

As for all this stuff about developers not giving a crap what people think. Although I've only been posting here, and on phpbb.com for a short while, it has always seemed to me that it's more the general users rather than the developers that don't give a crap what people have to say.
Sure they have the "it'll be ready when it's ready" line, but that has been in place for a long time, they can't just all of a sudden go changing it, plus if you were giving up your free time to work on a project of this scale, would you wan5t to be tied to a schedule?
Though some of the devs answers to posts can be somewhat blunt at times(c'mon SHS you know it's true ) it seems to me that at least they do take the time to answer, and if I'm not mistaken many suggestions/comments are in fact taken on board.

[Highway of Life]

Why would the developers bother to release a "quick" B6 when they already have such a, comparatively speaking, stable product?
There are enough people running CVS snapshots (yeah, I know, some of you don't think there are enough people) to report any major bugs. At least I would think anybody who is willing to download snapshots on a daily basis is probably doing some pretty heavy testing of the software.

This is true.
The reason would be to allow broader testing of some of the changes that were made since Beta5.
Sure there are a lot of us running CVS, but we can’t always catch everything.

On the other hand, the majority of the bug reports have been with the prosilver style, and that’s hardly reason enough to release another Beta... but! you never know.
The feeling I get right now is that they are still aiming for RC1, otherwise I think Beta6 would be out already.

70something bugs I would say is minimal for a product of this magnitude, and also tells me that most of the "biggies" have been sorted.
So, with that being said, why wouldn't they release RC1 to the general public, support it, and find out from people that don't think "like a developer/programmer" if there are any other issues that need resolved?
That just makes more sense to me.

The moment they release RC, they start supporting it... and if there are still some changes that need to be made -- perhaps even slightly more than minor changes -- it’s not as easy to deal with if it’s in RC. (IMO) because you have all these people running it live now, and you don’t want to say "oh, just re-install it" -- Which is what the testers are supposed to do in Beta.

And yes, for some of us, it makes little difference to us what they release.

For the benefit of the bit, at least It’s more than a little, and not impossible to be less.

[Kevin Clark]

There's good reasoning for both.

If they go beta6 it'll test fixes to the new style and the revamped converter (which has changed quite a bit since B5).

If they go RC1 then i think it'll be fine cos it obviously works as a forum because this site and the main site is using it and I still haven't seen any bugs in normal day to day use as a forum. But they'll have to be prepared for a step up in users and bugs and of course they have to start supporting it. That's a major step to take and I take my hat off to them when they make that move as it's a big advance in the progress.

Either way I don't mind too much. I'd like RC to be out by september as my main forum is 3 years old then and it would be kind of nice to have a birthday revamp but it's not the end of the world (for me) if it isn't.