Goin' Beta

Published in Fiftyfoureleven on Friday, June 4th, 2004

For beta or for worse? over at 37signals and the Wired article Mo' Beta Testing Blues are two articles that discuss the proliferance of 'beta' products on the web today.

In the Wired article, they quote both Jason Fried (of 37signals fame) and Blake Scarborough, the latter having the following to offer:

If you have a beta, you expect it to not be perfect," said Blake Scarbrough, a Web designer. "Once it's launched, you expect it to be perfect."..."If it's already completed, [users] really don't have that desire to give them feedback," said Scarbrough.

Prior to all of this, I considered putting a 'beta' at the top in the header for our blog here (inspired by Orkut), but was convinced otherwise.

As some of you know, we're writing our own blog script and, as a result, things here sometimes change, unbeknownst to and unannounced to the user. I know, bad form, but not a big deal, really, as it seems most people read our RSS feeds anyway, and this site isn't exactly rocket science!

Nonetheless, let this post be the notice: we're in a beta mode here and things will be shuffling and changing for another few weeks while we iron out the creases of both our script and the whole UI of this site...

And oh-boy 'tis the season to be punny, just look at those titles: For beta or for worse?, Mo' Beta Testing Blues , and Get a Beta Start!!

Comments and Feedback

Some feedback:

  • Provide Atom
  • Use LINK to specify were the feed is located.

Thanks Anne. I\'m right into both of those suggestions, and need to learn more about LINK itself. I was hoping to dive into that stuff this weekend...

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