I still don't think that I can see the implementation of official betas (most of us already have one or three for our apps anyway) as a real way to help alleviate the load on the app team (the betas' can't sort out apps, only offer assistance) and predict a lot of potential issues ('picking castmates', personal grudges from or against the betas, having betas not come through for their charges or two betas giving different advise, and so on... ) with it based on my previous experiences with official betas which will have to be at least considered in time. However, I think the idea is good if you can manage to get it to work! (holding hands for worried app writers and rookies = good; having it sound as if they are meant as first filter for the stressed app team = not so good)
If I may also say so... I was more than a bit confused when the app team suddenly started to answer our questions and concerns when we thought that they were meant for the mods. It's easy to see why and how deeply they are involved but it was still strange for me to have who I considered fellow players suddenly address me with what one might call the authority of a mod without giving an explanation why. Sorry if I got rude about it, but I really didn't know what to think about that since I kept those positions clearly separated in my head. (app team: people who take care of apps, get little sleep - mods: people who run the game, do apps and a lot other of stuff, get even less sleep)
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I still don't think that I can see the implementation of official betas (most of us already have one or three for our apps anyway) as a real way to help alleviate the load on the app team (the betas' can't sort out apps, only offer assistance) and predict a lot of potential issues ('picking castmates', personal grudges from or against the betas, having betas not come through for their charges or two betas giving different advise, and so on... ) with it based on my previous experiences with official betas which will have to be at least considered in time. However, I think the idea is good if you can manage to get it to work! (holding hands for worried app writers and rookies = good; having it sound as if they are meant as first filter for the stressed app team = not so good)
If I may also say so... I was more than a bit confused when the app team suddenly started to answer our questions and concerns when we thought that they were meant for the mods. It's easy to see why and how deeply they are involved but it was still strange for me to have who I considered fellow players suddenly address me with what one might call the authority of a mod without giving an explanation why. Sorry if I got rude about it, but I really didn't know what to think about that since I kept those positions clearly separated in my head. (app team: people who take care of apps, get little sleep - mods: people who run the game, do apps and a lot other of stuff, get even less sleep)