Dish Beta Testers
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Yup, I guess you are right... belongs in the "alpha" testers thread. I pity the fools that are "Zeta" testers.GaryPen said:
OK, sarcasm aside....
Do you think Dish would benefit if they had a set group around the country subscribed to be beta testers... they would get the latest equipment, a dedicated technically savvy group of CSR's to log your bugs... instead of them waiting for customer complaints?
Computer companies do this with software.. why can't Dish?
Do you think Dish would benefit if they had a set group around the country subscribed to be beta testers... they would get the latest equipment, a dedicated technically savvy group of CSR's to log your bugs... instead of them waiting for customer complaints?
Computer companies do this with software.. why can't Dish?
Charlie Ergen, Jim DeFranco, and some high up employees such as those in charge of the software and other technology put into these receivers are the ones that get to beta test the receivers. If there are any others besides that, they are probably have to agree to not say that they are beta testing the receivers, let alone what they are beta testing, what they are finding, and so forth.
I am a beta tester for the 721, Mark Lamutt from DBSTalk is a beta tester for the 921.
Mark has a DNA (Non Disclosure Agreement) with Dish, while I do NOT have one.
As a beta tester we really are not told much, we just get updates from time to time and an email saying something like "make sure you can record while using OpenTV" but not much is told to us other then that.
Mark has been lucky with the 921 because the code is being written by Elden which is a company out of England, you can't get that info that Mark gets from Dish Network employees.
Its actually kind of sad. We are here not only to support you the users but also to help the satellite companies, we provide a free 24/4 source of news and a data collection point for them, and sometimes getting info from them is like pulling teeth. I have actually thought about blocking access to the forums to the echostar.com domain name just because some of the BS we must go through.
Mark has a DNA (Non Disclosure Agreement) with Dish, while I do NOT have one.
As a beta tester we really are not told much, we just get updates from time to time and an email saying something like "make sure you can record while using OpenTV" but not much is told to us other then that.
Mark has been lucky with the 921 because the code is being written by Elden which is a company out of England, you can't get that info that Mark gets from Dish Network employees.
Its actually kind of sad. We are here not only to support you the users but also to help the satellite companies, we provide a free 24/4 source of news and a data collection point for them, and sometimes getting info from them is like pulling teeth. I have actually thought about blocking access to the forums to the echostar.com domain name just because some of the BS we must go through.
Scott Greczkowski said:
That would kind of eliminate our only real way to get through to Dish with software bugs and gripes. This and other sat forum web boards are read daily by Dish employees. Without this they would only have customer complaints, which we all know ,when you say you have a bug the csr or techs first response is :"we have never heard of that one before...." " If you will do a smart card reset and a blah blah blah...."
GaryPen said:
That could be funny but lets remember what true "Alpha" testing really is... Most Alphas are not complete in any form and are lucky to run for even 30 minutes... My 921 works fine at this point (except for the random reboots I get about once a day).
My 921 is still by far superior over any of my cable boxes..(Well I only have 1 now).
thevoice said:
The term "Beta Test" is thrown around pretty loosely these days. Most people would be shocked to see what it truly is like to be a real beta tester.
They wouldn't even know how to use an Alpha release. Love to see some of them with a milestone release.....
thevoice said:
So you are saying that your 921 has all the features as advertised and its current level of stability is acceptable to you?
I had a cable box once and if it weren’t for the price/content I would still have one as even the most basic cable box is more stable than the 921and at the very least it did what they said it would.
There is a saying, “ if you keep doing what you have been doing you will keep getting what you have been getting.”
Dish will continue to produce and put out crappy code until the only thing they understand makes them stop…and that is people stop buying it.
If the 921 was an OS it would be Windos 3.0 at best!
If I ever did block Echostar.COM it would only be for a short while, just enough for them to realize how valuable we are to them.
And no I have no plans to do so.
Dish just needs to figure out that Informed customers are the best customers.
And no I have no plans to do so.
Dish just needs to figure out that Informed customers are the best customers.
Hey, Windows 3.1 is a pretty good OS. We still have two computers at my company that use Windows 3.1 on DOS 5.0 and are used for a pretty important task each week (running a nationwide radio show for over 160 top40 radio stations).
But I digress. As to beta testers, E* does have a few, but in my mind, not enough to make the product great. I would love to see E* get many people in an advanced beta program that they get feedback from, and use the feedback to fix problems. As a software engineer, there is no way that an engineer can write great software without non-techies testing that software in real-world conditions.
Reedl
But I digress. As to beta testers, E* does have a few, but in my mind, not enough to make the product great. I would love to see E* get many people in an advanced beta program that they get feedback from, and use the feedback to fix problems. As a software engineer, there is no way that an engineer can write great software without non-techies testing that software in real-world conditions.
Reedl
