[wp-hackers] Community Views on Now and the Future

[Kirk Steffensen]

Quoting David House <dmhouse at gmail.com>:
> Yeah, exactly. The testers list. We got about 2 replies to Ryan's
> "2.02 RC" post. Testing without feedback is no testing at all.
David House wrote:

Like many other things in WordPress development, if there were a published
process for testing that were then adhered to, there might be more active
participation.

I tested the RC.  I gave my one note, which turned out to be a false 
alarm (and
I posted that, too).

But since there's no test procedure, no test response form, etc., I 
didn't send
in the non-existent test results form.

Even something as simple as a standard notice like this:

Please test WP 2.0.2 RC1.  Please return positive or negative results in the
following format:
Server OS: ______
PHP version: _____
mySQL version: _____
WP version upgraded from: ______ (or clean install: ________)
Plugins used: _________
Theme used: _________
Was the installation documentation adequate: ________
Did you encounter any errors during the upgrade: _______
Did you find any errors or anomalous behavior in your blog after the upgrade:
________
Did the upgrade break any plugins: ________________
What errors did the plugins report: _______________
And so on...

If you want specific functions tested, spell out a test procedure to make sure
that you're getting apples-to-apples on every different type of server
configuration.  Ask for specific results to those test procedures, not just a
general "Hey everyone, test the list of 16 things we posted in Trac.  Go dig
into all of the diffs and figure out what happened in the middle of an obscure
API call yourself."

If you just ask for feedback you'll get poor feedback that doesn't help you
establish that you got a broad base of server OS's, PHP and mySQL versions,
plugins used, etc.

(For what it's worth, I signed up on the "Tester's" sign up on the Codex right
after Matt sent out the request for sign up.  I have NEVER been contacted as a
result of that sign up.  I wonder if anyone else has either.  An unfollowed
process is a good as no process.)