[Danger]

Seems Taming summed up the problem with Kobo Beta testing rather well here.

Originally Posted by taming

I go absent from the board for weeks at a time. I do it when, from my perspective, people are rude and angry and do not seem interested in considering another POV. When being on MR is a stressor, rather than something I enjoy doing, I stop writing for awhile.

Fair enough. As for the anger displayed by some, including myself, can you really blame us? Kobo basically forces you to upgrade your firmware. None of us who were forced to upgrade (or choose to) were EVER asked to be a beta tester. This is where the anger comes in. What did Kobo really expect from us, to be good sheep, accept the crap they served us and go "Oh well, they'll fix the bugs in the next release (unresponsive taps anyone?), I can live with these for now. No instead what they got was some quite angry responses.

It was unfortunate for you Taming that you spoke up in defense of Kobo and the Beta testers as it gave all those who were angry that their Kobos were running as well as they were previously or borked altogether someone to focus their frustrations on. Honestly, at least for myself it was nothing personal towards you. I know if I had been ASKED to beta or was offered an option of beta testing, my attitude would have been quite different. I've participated in beta testing before. I know the drill. When I am asked or choose to beta test my goal is to help make the device or software the best that it can be, not to flame the developers.

....

Originally Posted by taming

As an aside: they are not big talkers/communicators. I am not at all surprised that they would choose silence over saying no and explaining why they did not elect to include someone in the beta group. We can write about bugs and never get a response, unless we ask directly if they have been able to replicate the issue. I know we are important to them, but they don't have the staffing to be able to assign a staffer to making us feel warm and cozy, much less to respond personally to things people say elsewhere. They do write on MR occasionally. I think it is pretty great that they do it at all. After all, this is not their official help site. I don't see much developer action on the other boards (well except for calibre--but MR IS the official support site there).

And there we have the problem. Communication or rather lack of it. Warm and cozy, who the heck wants warm and cozy?!?! What I expect when in a beta group is great, superb even, and constant communication, not only from the beta testers BUT ALSO from the staffer looking after the beta testers. Not having at least ONE DEDICATED staffer to look after the beta group is just plain crap (trying not to swear and this is not aimed at you Taming but Kobo itself). Beta testers should have clear direction, goals and milestones of things that need testing, bugs that have been reported but the developers haven't been able to replicate and bugs that have been fixed and need testing to make sure they were really squashed. If the communication is 99% one way and only 1% feedback, what really is the point of beta testing.

.D. Here's a new firmware, tell us what bugs you can find...
.B. We found this, this and this,
.D. Ok we were able to replicate A & C, please give us more info on B so we can try and replicate...
.B. I was able to replicate it doing this, then this and this
.D. AHHH Ok we could replicate that, here is a new firmware fix for A & C while we look at B and try to fix it.
.B. Yes we can no longer replicate A & C, they appear to be gone for now.

That's good communication. What I expect myself to give and what I expect to receive from the person looking after the beta group. The person looking after the beta group does not have to be a developer but someone with good communication skills who can communicate to the developers the bugs that were found AND new features customers would like. He/She also communicates BACK TO the beta testers not only if more information is needed to pin down a bug, but where a bug has been fixed and if any new features have been added/changed and what specifically needs more testing.

Perhaps I am reading more into Tamings comments than she meant but that is what I am getting.

Originally Posted by taming

I have come to understand that the Kobo developer group we work with is not all powerful. For example, some things that may seem to me to be development issues are really in the content folks' backyard. I also know that developers have advocated strongly for positions that were held by beta testers that involve different work teams.

From what I have seen and other comments I would guess that you are indeed right about this. It's a real shame that more we cry out that we DO NOT WANT advertisements (DISCOVER, WISHLIST ETC) on our Kobos and have even said at least give us the option in the settings to turn these off we as customers are not listened to. I really really really love the hardware side of my Kobo and firmware side WHEN I am reading a book (excluding dead taps) but I HATE the desktop app, other than loading books onto your Kobo (which I do not use it for) it is a piece of crap. The only software program I detest more is ADE. I also really really dislike (I can't say hate but it's close) the advertising on the home page. Even the minimized to Discouver and Wishlist. I've said it before and will keep saying it, MOVE THEM to the Find Books menu where they belong, that I could happily live with.

Hmmm, maybe I wrote to much, wife just told me "Ok Shakespear your breakfast is ready." Man I hope I am not that hard to understand here