In order to improve my open source project, I need testers. I have created my project independently, so up to now I have been the sole coder and tester. I have tested the thing to death, but as we all know it is dangerous as a developer to test your own code. I’m looking for ideas on how I can get some other eyes to exercise it.
To clarify, I have released it on sourceforge and posted it on freshmeat, dzone, reddit, etc.
Are you looking for ‘testers’ or ‘users’? There’s a world of difference.
A tester uses his time and energy to find your bugs. How many people are willing to do that? At a rough guess, I’d say zero.
A user uses your software to solve his problems. He reports bugs to you because he thinks that you might fix them for him. So you’ve got to find people with a problem, and convince them that your software will fix it.
One thing you’ll need is lots of documentation. A 1-minute screencast, in-depth API, and everything in between. You need to persuade someone that, ‘If I use tox, I will totally rock!’
That’s your tester.