I like the sitting outside, waiting for something big, like a new pope and reading the smoke myself. But seriously, as I've said in the past, we all talk amoung ourselves and we end up projecting something onto the situation from our own experiences, frustrations or desires. Meanwhile, we have little real feedback from the mothership as to what is or is not in the pipeline. Now granted they don't have to, but with such a nice captive audience that only wants to pitch in and help or suggest good improvements, it would be nice though.
Lastly I do feel that for those that "beta" test, there should be a separate standard of support and communication. Beta testing does imply a different form of a relationship. It's a more mutual, symbiotic type of relationship and the vendor should recognize it as such. Those that beta test are putting their offices and their data in this case somewhat at risk, and there needs to be an understanding of such. "This is really part of R&D and its related expenses. Plus that we the company/vendor need to be there for these folks if and when beta testing does bite them in the rump or corrupts their data". Many of us have been very helpful, putting up with many glitches, crashes and bumps to the flow of things in our offices in an attempt to be of assistance with the development of this product. In exchange we do get to test drive the lastest release and sometimes have an influence on what does or does not make it into that final product. This type of relationship is always different than that of a regular standard release type customer and always needs to be recognized and supported as such. There should be clearer, cleaner lines of communication between the vendor and the beta site.
