SMF 2.0 Beta 1 Released to Charter Members

[christicehurst]

How many places have a demo of their BETA software?

How many place charge money for a BETA? Only place I know of is Microsoft...

[Coldfx]

How many places have a demo of their BETA software?

How many place charge money for a BETA? Only place I know of is Microsoft...

How many places offer previews of things/bonuses to donators?

[christicehurst]

How many places have a demo of their BETA software?

How many place charge money for a BETA? Only place I know of is Microsoft...

How many places offer previews of things/bonuses to donators?

It's not really donation. It's a paid membership to jump ahead in the support que line and to get your hands on software. Most people I ask about the membership and their main reason is to get the beta software and the added support.

[nitins60]

It's not about money/demos!! Usually SMF releases beta to charter members first. Once the all bugs which are popped up, will be fixed and release most *secure* version for public. That's the main point of Charter Members if i am correct

[Sordell Media]

Which would you prefer? Them offering a way for those who are able/willing to get the software before its ready for release, and aid them in bug discovery etc, and enable them to keep the public release free, or to have to pay just to use the software so they can hire people to do the bug testing?

[Thantos]

I can't deny that some people get Charter membership just for the beta.  I can't and won't stop them from doing so.  I think the support services are of much more value but that is me.

We released the beta just to the charter members not as a money grab but to keep good on our word.

Advanced Betas

As a way to thank you for their support, you will have access to any new versions of SMF before everyone else. While we have a small team of beta testers to make sure a beta release is ready for you to play with, you'll still be within the first hundred people World-wide to have access to our new code. This also means we take your feedback seriously; we want to deliver the best software that we can!

And the feedback has been great.  The suggestions being made are helping to shape 2.0.

IMO if we were to release the 2.0 beta to charter members and then put up a public test site then we'd be breaking our word, morally even if not legally.

[nitins60]

If i remember correctly, SMF 1.1 final released to charter members just 1week before to public release

[shadow82x]

AS of what being said I became a charter member yes because of SMF2 because I wanted to help get a lot of bugs out now so you guys don't have to deal with it when it goes public. So many times they say not to use it on a live site and to remember the risks which is true. IMO I think most people became charter members

a) To get advanced support one on one
b) To donate to SMF for being a great software

Why not support a software that is FREE and is better than PAID softwares?

[FunPika4]

I can't deny that some people get Charter membership just for the beta.  I can't and won't stop them from doing so.  I think the support services are of much more value but that is me.

We released the beta just to the charter members not as a money grab but to keep good on our word.

Advanced Betas

As a way to thank you for their support, you will have access to any new versions of SMF before everyone else. While we have a small team of beta testers to make sure a beta release is ready for you to play with, you'll still be within the first hundred people World-wide to have access to our new code. This also means we take your feedback seriously; we want to deliver the best software that we can!

And the feedback has been great.  The suggestions being made are helping to shape 2.0.

IMO if we were to release the 2.0 beta to charter members and then put up a public test site then we'd be breaking our word, morally even if not legally.

*estimates 458 current Charter members* Lets see here...if 101+ of the 458 Charter members downloads the new beta, then the part of the word that I bolded will probably be broken. Because then some of the charter members will be within the first thousand people world-wide to have access to your new code, not the first hundred. 

I hope I got that right...

[SleePy]

If i remember correctly, SMF 1.1 final released to charter members just 1week before to public release

FYI, We never put time tables out. As well 1.1 was feature locked at that time so there was only bug fixes being done.
It doesn't mater if it takes 6 months to get a public release even. Its just how it goes.

[DivineMessage]

I'd be willing to pay for 2.0... I need the features badly and I love SMF but I run a non profit site and it already costs me enough... I am just so happy that it is released because maybe I will have it by December lol

Good job SMF Team!

[青山 素子]

*estimates 458 current Charter members* Lets see here...if 101+ of the 458 Charter members downloads the new beta, then the part of the word that I bolded will probably be broken. Because then some of the charter members will be within the first thousand people world-wide to have access to your new code, not the first hundred. 

Thanks for the info on that. The text is really old, and we should update it.

If i remember correctly, SMF 1.1 final released to charter members just 1week before to public release

Yep, and they got hit with a few fun bugs that required a patch. The normal release had the patch already applied. The normal users benefit a lot from the charter members testing the software.

[DivineMessage]

I'd be beyond happy to have this in a month.

[codenaught]

I can't understand why there are some people who seem to get so upset about the whole releasing to charter members first thing.

I tell you, the public would not be happy if these same releases were made to the public. It would be a support nightmare. And I literally mean it. We would be getting many duplicate bug reports (as we currently do, but to a much larger extent) and several people would complain about our software being so "buggy." At the end of the day, just remember that, no one, no one at all is getting paid here at SMF. We put the charter money into helping pay for expenses keeping this site up.

2.0 Beta 1 has a lot of quirks in it, and no matter how much we encourage people not to use it live yet, people still do. This is acceptable to some degree with charter members. Because there are only so many charter members so it can be fairly manageable to support them. But if it was already available for download, a lot of people would decide to jump in the deep end and run it on their live forum.

Some of these people will run into trouble with the upgrade, will have "forgotten" to make a backup, and they may be forced to start over. Some of the less forum technical people may not realize that not only will their mods and themes be lost, but so few of the mods and themes they had will be available. When 2.0 goes public, there will already be a number of mods updated to work for 2.0 from both team members who wrote their own mods, and charter members who also wrote their own mods.

And let's not all forget, we are FREE, we will always be FREE, and everyone WILL eventually get their hands on 2.0. Just have a little patience, all. It may not be easy, I know, but the longer the wait, all the sweeter it will be when you finally get to try it.

[Thantos]

I'd be beyond happy to have this in a month.

Sorry to say that you'll be disappointed in a month.

[Paracelsus]

Aaaahhh... just forget about those who complain of not having the 2.0 Beta. Because that's what this is - a BETA version, so SMF Devs need BETA TESTERS... what's the easiest and most logic way to select them?... Going for the Charter Members.

As a matter of fact, if I was a Charter Member, I would surely be one to support SMF and not just to get the BETA... because the BETA satisfies just your curiosity, but on the other hand, is a "buggy" environment, you can't really use it "for real" because of the high risk of severe failures, and in the end you have to concentrate more on what is not working properly than to enjoy playing with the new "toy".

Furthermore, there's that little detail (which isn't so little) about SMF going from v1 till v2. This is the first one-jump version ever, so it is more than predictable that big conceptual changes are coming up and not just little patches here and there, and that demands more time than the usual to assure all things are as they should be for the public release.

[Powerbob]

I am a charter member, and have to agree with the statements above, smf 2.0 is "definitely not" for live boards at this moment in time. Bugs are turning up and being rectified daily. Documentation is still incomplete. There are no mods or extra skins available as yet. So be patient. Look forward to a great product when it's finally released.

[shadow82x]

You guys saying there are no mods for the beta are wrong. Theres about 25 right now. Although as said above theres a bunch of bugs and I would not upgrade unless you know what your doing.

[Dragooon]

Actually Using SMF Beta As for live site is not a genius thing specially if it is huge. One word explains it all and that is "Beta 1" Its not even a "Release Candidate" it is "Beta 1" A simple Beta 1. Expect a lot of bugs as it is the first beta.

I am totally with Aka, If it would be released to public it will be a big trouble for SMF as there is NO docs and the other stuff.

SMF doesent uses Charter membership just to get money. They give advanced support in back. And as far as betas are concerned, I think they release it to CMs just to test the things out. As it is not a big crowed it can be handled and it helps team a lot with the bug reports. Along with that the Charter Mod authors are also able to upgrade there old mod to support with 2.0 so that they can make it public when it is actually Public(Well that is what I think).

[shadow82x]

Yep Dragooon your right. People are suprised that there are a lot of bugs in it. I mean..... beta  ..... b = buggy (not akabuggy's name) There are so many warnings. I have already seen to peole that were at 2.0 want to downgrade.