Trish,
 
The procedures  for the NT and  unix betas were radically  different. For
the unix  betas, the bulk of  the people who applied  where individuals I
had known  for years, most of  whom I had  already met in person.  I knew
they  could be  trusted,  and they  were all  from  the academic  sector.
Finally, it  was a  small group  of people.  So, we  never laid  down any
formal rule about the beta. We just did it, and there was no problem.
 
For the NT version  most of the people were unknown to  me, and many were
not from the academic sector. Some in fact were software vendors. We felt
it would not  be a good idea  to do everything informally. So  we wrote a
formal document with the rules to be respected in order to be included in
the beta.  By using the license  key, you agreed to  these rules. Nothing
was put  in writing, but  the conditions  were stated quite  clearly, and
they included  the standard  "can't say  anything in  public good  or bad
until  L-Soft breaks  the  news". You  need this  kind  of rules  because
naturally there  are going to be  problems during the beta  and you don't
want people  saying in public "I'm  trying the brand new  NT LISTSERV and
boy, is  it a piece  of rubbish!" You also  don't want people  to mention
features that you may later decide not to release because of some problem
that you can't  solve. In fact you don't want  people to mention anything
in public,  period. There's no need  to make public comments  when you're
testing new software. This is a standard clause that I've seen in all the
betas I've participated in. In fact most  of them say that you can't even
state that you're testing the new software.
 
It's the same  with the prices. As  I said, we're working  on a radically
different  pricing policy  for NT.  Some beta  sites needed  the software
right now so we decided to sell it  to them at the same prices as the VMS
version.  So in  other words  the  price list  is  still in  beta and  we
positively didn't want  people making the kind of  comment Laurence made.
We know PC people expect different  pricing policies and we're working on
that.  What   he  complained   about,  even   setting  aside   the  gross
inaccuracies, is a price list that we know needs to be fixed and on which
we therefore  don't want  to be  judged, just  as we  don't want  our new
products to be judged on unfinished versions that aren't released.
 
  Eric