[Guest]

Very soon I will be rolling out a service that provides a free web site (actually a sub-site) for rally teams.

The focus is to provide an easy-to-update site where just about anyone will be able to log in and post press releases, news, information, pictures, and just random ramblings to their team site. Each site will have the capability of multiple authors so the ability to update can be shared with driver, co-driver, etc.

There will be more to come later too, but I don't want to give it all away.

So, to the specific subject at hand. I need 4 beta testers. If you reply but aren't selected for the initial beta, then I will contact you later when there is another roll-out.

Here are the requirements for the first round of beta testers:

1. Have a rally team that is active in a number of events every year, preferably not only regionally.

2. Be willing to post something to the site at least 3 times a week. (The whole idea of the beta is to work out the bugs so I need some regular activity.)

If you are interested, please reply VIA EMAIL to [email protected] with the subject of "RB BETA APPLICATION" so it goes through my spam filter.

Include the following information:

1. Car number
2. Series you compete in
3. Car Make/Model/class
4. Driver & Co driver for each car
5. Team Name.
6. Name, Email and "position" (ie, driver, service chief, etc) for everyone you want to be able to post to your team page.

If you have more than one car on your team, please include information for each car.


Mika Lepisto
www.lepisto.com

 

[Guest]

Okay, I got ONE response from special stage? I've got a few beta's lined up but I'd like to get a couple more.

Anyone?


Mika Lepisto
www.lepisto.com

 

[Anders Green]

Updates three times a week? Take a look at the current team web sites. (there's a whole thread currently listing them) You'll see that updates are on the order of one per month or three per year.

What you're asking for is a lot ("Hey, everyone come test my stuff and create content for me!") and the audience you're talking to (rallyiests) generally fall into the following two categories:

Category A) Wants a web site for their team, and has one

Category B) doesn't think a web site is as important as figuring out how to bolt that new skid plate on.

I think that if you're looking for lots of people, who do lots of rallying, and have lots of time to test your web site... there's not going to be many.

Perhaps you could entice folks by telling them what your plans are to get exposure for those sites? Or extolling the virtues or features of your system?

Best of luck,
Anders

 

[Jens]

>Here are the requirements for the first round of beta
>testers:

No offense intended, but....

You want beta testers that you are not paying, but you have "requirements" of them? Good luck.


>1. Have a rally team that is active in a number of events
>every year, preferably not only regionally.

Perhaps if you don't limit your beta testers to rallyists (let alone active rallyists) you can get more people to help. You can delete their input after testing is over. .... It's just a thought....

 

[Guest]

Anders & Jens,

Thanks for the feedback, and let me address the items you mentioned.

Updates: I realize that many rally team sites are updated infrequently, if ever - that's why I came up with this idea to make it much more simple for people to update their site. I think many people don't build their site themselves and either have no way of updating it, or don't want to pay someone to update it, or any number of other reasons. Yes, 3 times a week may be a bit much normally but during testing I want some volume to get the testing out of the way before I put it into full circulation.

Unpaid beta testers: Yes, unfortunately the beta testers are unpaid. This service is free and it's not like it will be a big money maker for me. For example, take a look at www.rallyclassified.com which I run. Free for everyone to post and I make a minor amounts off the ad clicks. It's starting to pay for the hosting now but it sure didn't for the last couple years before I broke down and decided I'm tired of paying the costs myself and put in the ads. I'm doing this because I hope its valuable to some people and a learning process for myself, not as a cash-cow. Many companies/services are selective of their beta testers because there is overhad in setting up the applications (web or otherwise) and if there's no activity it's a waste of time.

Exposure & Features: There will be exposure to this site. I can't predict how many visitors until it's out there and getting traffic. I have some tricks up my sleeve but that's not something I am willing to share at this time. I can post a list of features if you're interested but everything is still in development so some things may get the axe and others may be added from requests of the testers.

Limiting to only rallyists: You suggested a great idea about not limiting to certain types of people. In the future, it will be open to just about anyone who wants a site, but I have to build the interfaces to handle that I'm not quite there yet. It's starting to come together and will hopefully be ready soon. However, I wouldn't feel right having someone do the test for me at this stage, and then deleting their stuff after they do the testing. There is work that goes into it on their part and I wouldn't want to waste their time & energy.

Just to clarify, I wasn't hoping for TONS of people but maybe like four or five and was surprised that I only had interest from one. Maybe it's due to the reasons you mentioned.

Thanks again for your input. I'll put some thought into what you've brought up and keep that in mind while I'm working on the site.

Mika Lepisto
www.lepisto.com

 

[rallyde]

For how long will the beta test be run?

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I didn't have a set timeframe really. I was just looking to work out the big kinks which should be pretty well worked out by now. It is now in public access, so anyone can view it here: http://www.rallyblogs.com

If you want a site set up, please send me the information requested above.

Thanks.

Mika Lepisto
www.lepisto.com