Dropping the Beta

I finally heard back from download.com yesterday - the 16th, five days after K-Pad was due to be "listed".

Your product, K-Pad, requires immediate attention. Currently, your product does not comply with our Software Policies.

You have submitted a beta version of your software instead of a full release version.

The CNET Networks software libraries strive to contain only software that is stable enough for distribution to the average computer user. Alpha, beta, or other prerelease software versions often prove buggy or unstable and can create serious problems for many computer users. For this reason, we have a policy of including only programs that are full-release, non-beta versions in our library--except in cases where our staff makes an explicit editorial exception.

Well, here were my thoughts about that, in rough order:

1. Their filters are next-to-useless! The number of times I specified "Beta" on the submission, and they don't mention this is a no-no straight away?

2. Buggy or unstable? I use K-Pad every day, and it's pretty damned stable. On the other hand, a non-beta Firefox crashed five times on me this morning.

3. I'm now going to have to resubmit, and wait another three+ weeks... :-(


I suppose I got into the habit of labelling K-Pad as Beta, because, six months ago, it needed testing. But now, I work with it every day. The bugs I've found over the past couple of months weren't particularly serious, or were graphical glitches, or only applied to obscure ways of using the program.

I've never lost more than a minute's work with K-Pad, due to the auto-save feature. Neither have I had it crash for any reason I couldn't fathom and have fixed by the next day.

So I'm dropping the beta tag for the next version. And I'll reinstate it should I ever do anything drastic, like mess about with the save/load code.


What I find a bit worrying, however, is the "no alpha/beta" policy on these distribution sites. This encourages submitters not to use the alpha/beta tag at all, even when the program deserves it. Surely a better solution would be to clearly label alpha/beta status on each page, and allow people to make their own, informed decisions?