We're getting ready for the beta testing cycle of the new version of CMS Made Simple (Version 1.6). And we need help.
Because of the lack of success of the previous beta cycles, we're going to do this one slightly differrently, and hope that things work out better. This will be a closed beta... Only the people accepted to the group will have access to the beta, and an advantage over everybody else.
We are looking for ten to twenty experienced CMS Made Simple users that want to get involved, and have been looking for an opportunity to do so.
What we want:
a) You should be an experienced web development professional.
We won't be holding hands through software installs or how to change permissions, or tracking down issues in error logs... you should know all this stuff
b) You should be willing to donate some time within the beta period.
Yeah, I know... that's the tough part. We all have deadlines and commitments. But seriously, people that download the package and give it 10 minutes of effort are useless to us... we need somebody with the willingness and ability to spend some time testing, and to communicate with us to make his package better.
Although you should not use the beta for any production site... or site you or developing with a tight deadline, it is probably okay to use the beta for developing a site that will be rolled out 'down the road'. We don't want to have issues come up and have somebody saying 'I need this problem solved today I have to roll the site out'.
c) You should have good communication skills
We don't have the time for people that are only willing to post one or two generic and/or vague sentences to describe a problem. We don't want to have to ask simple questions just to understand what you are trying to talk about or how you are using the system. We need detailed, descriptive, and easy to understand descriptions of issues or questions so that we can try to reproduce the issue and fix them or answer you. If you aren't willing or able to do this, then you probably should not apply.
d) You should have experience with CMS Made Simple
If you have never used the package before... or you just started, then this is probably not for you. We need people with CMSMS experience to know how the package used to behave, understand what has changed, and to verify the correct functionality.
EDIT: It is likely that if you don't have many forum posts (hopefully answering questions and not asking so many) you won't be accepted. We're looking for people with around 100 or more posts... and some good experience with CMSMS.
e) A willingness to torture test the application and learn.
We want you to spend time testing as much as you can. Including all of the admin capabilities, and all of the core modules. Maybe you can use this time to try out some of the functionality you haven't used before and figure out how it works.
What you will get:
a) Exclusive access to the CMS Made Simple 1.6 beta
Only other beta testers and dev team members will have access to the download
b) Exclusive access to a message board just for this topic
c) Access to nightly (or even more frequent) snapshots of the latest 1.6 code
d) The ear of the CMS Made Simple development group
This is your chance to get involved, earn some kudos points... make the developers aware of you, and perhaps earn some trust from them. If you have wanted to get involved, but just haven't found a way, then here's a fantastic opportunity.
e) A chance to show what you're made of.
Nice to Have:
It would be nice to have people volunteer that use a variety of different web environments on different platforms:
- Users with PHP 4 environments (yeah, I know, it's old.. but we still support it).
- People using Postgres
- People using WAMP or XAMPP on Windows machines
- People using IIS + MySQL
People that are willing to hang around in the #cms irc channel on freenode.net and communicate about their beta testing successes and failures will be greatly appreciated.
Applying:
There are two ways to apply to be a beta tester
a) Post a reply in this thread
b) Send a private message to RonnyK (RonnyK is the head of the Quality Assurance Team). Or to Myself.
If your application is approved you'll be notified by PM in the forum or via email. If you hang around in the IRC channel, we may also contact you there.
Again.... this is your chance to get involved, and give back to a great, award winning package. We look forward to hearing from you.
