Lately we have seen a lot of mappers become frustrated and annoyed because their WIP topics keep receiving replies from people asking to play a beta of an unfinished map, without any regard for if the mapper has asked for testers or if the map is even in a playable state yet. While some of these replies are from people who genuinely want to help find bugs in the map, the majority of them are just from people trying to play a map early and don't care about giving the mapper any feedback.

I came up with an idea today that I wanted to run by you guys and see if you think it would help solve the problem and see if you would take advantage of this system as a mapper.

Here is the idea:

• I add a button to the top of the first post of a WIP topic (near the reply, notify, etc buttons) called "Request Beta Tester Access". When clicked, this will sign up the user as a beta tester for the WIP topic. No notification of this will be sent to the mapper since I understand the primary issue with people requesting beta access is the annoyance of receiving topic reply and pm notifications from them.
• The mapper can view a complete list of all people who have clicked the request beta button, along with timestamps so that you can tell the order in which people have signed up and how long ago it was.
• The mapper can enable and disable the "Request Beta Access" button at any time via a checkbox the edit page of the first post of the topic.
• We add a forum rule that you are not allowed to post a reply to a WIP topic asking for a beta/download/test privilege. Any replies made for this purpose will be deleted and the user will receive a warning, just like they would for breaking any other rule.

So what are your guys' thoughts on this? Do you think it would help? Do you think it's a waste of our time? Mappers, would you use this system? Would you find this useful?

I also had an idea about adding some sort of rep system for mappers to use to rate a tester with a +1 or a -1 for if they were a useful beta tester, so that other mappers can identify which testers would be most genuine about being helpful. This would probably be a lot of work to implement.

Also keep in mind I have not coded any of this yet so it will probably take some days/weeks/etc to get anything up and running for this.

- UGX-Mods Forum Staff

I personally love this idea! I am also sick of seeing people go on to my WIP's(and others) asking for beta access. This will definitely clear up half of the replies on peoples WIPS. That also makes it easier for us to choose who we want to give the beta to and who we dont want to give the people to. Most of the people who request beta access are less than 50 posts and are just noobs who want the map early

I do agree I'm tired of seeing noobs ignoring everything on the WiP and just asking for a beta which in their minds is early access before anyone else, but i dont think a button even at the top of the WiP would stand out to them, they would still comment, but least a warning to them should let them know

Right on Trem, this would be a great feature to the forum.

I see possibilities ... 

I love the idea. Nothing is worse then people asking for download links or to beta test a W.I.P map it's disrespectful  in my opinion. W.I.P is meant to show off how a map looks and for feedback. Although the majority of the people who ask for beta access are just people who usually just download maps and don't ever try to talk to people on here.

wow 5 to 0, ya i think its unanimous. everyone wants this

This is an excellent idea. I do find it annoying that most of the replies on some WIP's are just people asking for access. idk when or why it started but it can definitely be frustrating.

Great idea, getting on my nerves reading through stuff and seeing half of it is people asking to beta test. I sense tons of warnings coming soon to those who don't read rules.

Its a great idea as long as you make a rule that forbids asking people for betas in the chat 

Sounds like a good idea so long as the rep system for it actually gets used properly.

Great idea

Sounds like a good idea so long as the rep system for it actually gets used properly.

Maybe the way to manage that aspect would be to only allow Communtiy Mappers (or Elites?) to use the rep system so that newb mappers aren't just +1ing everyone who signed up.

Maybe the way to manage that aspect would be to only allow Communtiy Mappers (or Elites?) to use the rep system so that newb mappers aren't just +1ing everyone who signed up.

That could work. I don't know how many elite mappers there is, so I don't know what making it elite only would do in the amount of rep given. I say it's worth a shot to make beta rep community\elite mappers only.
Maybe a little extra added would be a field the person wanting the beta can fill out stating the reason they want to beta test. I know I would already send a message asking that question so it would save some time and make it a little easier to weed out the "map look awsum i wana play" people. The rep and the reason they give can be displayed under the person's name on the list.

I like the idea, even though nobody asks betas in my maps  Oh well, I think the rep system should be allowed to those, who have  community title and/or over 250 posts. Some people are great mappers and such, but few things might ruin them from getting the title, so they can prove themselves in other way