Can you beta test an alpha?

[RIP-Felix]

I should have asked if you can beta test an alpha. What I mean by that is that I'm approaching this alpha like a beta test, where I try to sleuth out the situations that cause errors/exceptions, crashes, and strange behavior and report them as if they were unknown bugs. However, there are known options that don't work and are not supposed to yet. I hope I'm not exasperating the devs with excessive reports about non-functioning options and known bugs when what this is supposed to be is a taste to wet my appetite for the beta release, where such reports would be more appropriate.

Let me take this opportunity to thank @Tom Speirs @greatflash @headkaze and the rest of the GameEx  Team for their continued hard work and patience. We all greatly appreciate you guys.. I personally really like the wheel and carusel views, the way you stretch the video snaps and Marquees to fit the Arcade, and the smooth/slick way navigating by holding down doesn't jitter. You have really put a nice presentation on this release. I can see where that community snaps 400x400 game logo project will fit nicely in the grid view, and like the direction this project is heading. Keep up the great work guys!

[Tom Speirs]

Well, you can "Alpha test" an "Alpha". Its all good and your feedback is welcomed. It is helpful.

Cheers.

Tom.

[Draco1962]

Just a suggestion that might help so that members know what features are not fully enabled yet would be to change the text for those yet to be enabled settings in the Setup wizard to grey as a visual cue.

[DazzleHP]

On 30/06/2016 at 2:04 AM, Draco1962 said:

Just a suggestion that might help so that members know what features are not fully enabled yet would be to change the text for those yet to be enabled settings in the Setup wizard to grey as a visual cue.

Agreed, because even though it has been stated in detail that this only an Alpha, and should be treated as such, i feel some may get over-excited ^-^ At least if disabled options are greyed-out/un-selectable, expectations at this point will be more realistic, and probably will lead to more constructive feedback as a result (rather than complaining about options that are not available yet)

[RedDog]

I am sure there are many people who are not aware what the term 'Alpha' and 'Beta' represent in development.

You might consider putting a disclaimer on the first page of the Setup Wizard and a GameEx splash screen stating that this is an Alpha build and all features are not fully implemented, asking for user feedback, blah, blah,blah...you get the idea.

[Tom Speirs]

Good point guys.

What I did is added a note to the download here. Is that better?

Draco also did an FAQ here that I think covers it well: