uTest: Get Paid to Find Bugs

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/10/utest-now-open-for-business-get-paid-to-find-software-bugs/

by vlad • 18 years ago

17 13 18 years ago

techcrunch.com

asdf1234• 18 years ago

beware, it's not ready yet, sign up is a waste of time

marketer• 18 years ago

This reminds me of topcoder, but for testing

derefr• 18 years ago

Reminds me more of Amazon Mechanical Turk, which I was thinking of using as a generalized QA mechanism for computer software just the other day--the HIT would be "Report a new, unique, significant bug on the bug tracker of a piece of software you use."

dawnerd2• 18 years ago

I can see this being useful, but what incentives would I, as a developer have, of paying people to find bugs? Especially when they pay me and find the bugs and usually report them anyways?

reitzensteinm• 18 years ago

Bugs found by your paying customers have a cost even if they appear to you to be free. They increase the total cost of using your software, and in a perfectly fungible world ruled by rationality that's extra money you could be charging them for bug free software.

It also helps with massively distributed software where invidiuals are less likely to report bugs (without some kind of automated bug sendoff tool). Netscape had their $50 bug scheme, for instance.

dawnerd2• 18 years ago

Good points. I never really thought about the increase in cost of using the software.

ivankirigin2• 18 years ago

I had this idea just yesterday... earn 10 cents to be the first to submit a bug.

Kaizyn• 18 years ago

Sorry, the Amazon Mechanical Turk beat you to that one.

ivankirigin2• 18 years ago

I love Amazon Turk. I wish people used it more. People-powered processes with contributor cuts is not a new idea at all. I certainly never come up with new ideas :)

Funky_• 18 years ago

I have to sign up for a pre-paid master card in order to get paid? I gave up after that.

vikas5678• 18 years ago

Hmmm, well I have done some freelance programming through another similar website and yeah, I had to sign up and get a debit card(from master card) through them to get paid, so what? Of course, there was other payment options but I used the card option so that I could use that later for online purchasing, etc. I don't think that should convince you to not sign up IMHO.

TheTarquin• 18 years ago

Get paid to find bugs: Get a job in QA or test engineering.

Seriously, pay is better, as are job security and success rate. I got my start in industry as the testing guy for a fairly small contract software house. I started following the instructions on someone else's testing plan, then eventually graduated to doing my own testing plans, from design to execution. For someone in his last year of undergrad/right out of school, it afforded decent pay, good job security, and great industry experience.

Furthermore, it made me a far better coder, because it gave me a crash course in how to try to break things. It gave me a better sense of where and when software tends to break. As a result, the software I write is much more reliable than it would otherwise.

uTest: Get Paid to Find Bugs

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