[maemo-developers] Extras-testing improvements

[From: Stefanos Harhalakis]

On Friday 12 of March 2010, Ville M. Vainio wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 1:49 AM, Stefanos Harhalakis <v13 at v13.gr> wrote:
> > What's the reasoning of asking 10 people to do the same thing? This is
> > now popularity contest instead of a QA process. Popular apps among
> > developers (techie guys) advance. Non-popular apps wait.
> 
> I have suggested a solution for this problem before on IRC, but here it is:
> 
> Have an app that:
> 
> - Lists apps that need votes (i.e. apps in extras-testing)
> - Allow installing that app with few clicks
> - Provide way to give feedback & vote for that app
> 
> This would make app testing something you can do in a relaxed fashion
> when you are passing time, and feasible also for nontechnical people.

It sounds like a very good thought and most probably will improve the current 
situation a lot.

However, I still find the 10 votes to be 8-too-much. It's like provoking 
people to act irresponsibly by implying that a vote is not that important. 
Having a testers squad who's approval (sponsoring a'la Debian) (only from 1 or 
2 persons) will be required is probably the next best approach after having 2 
Nokia employees to do this job.

IMHO, streamlining application promotion (and development) should be a high 
priority for all mobile platforms. Great app repositories and satisfied 
developers are two of the things that actually improve sells and distinguish 
platforms.