I really like your post. Does it copyright protected?

@Chris - If you're not happy try Trillian. They didn't update for over 3 years.

"There’s no sense in releasing a patch for an old version when it’s about to be outdated in less than 24 hours." - @Mike

As an alpha user, why would I care if I have an old version if I can't even use the thing?

This AIM patch was not a major release, and it was tested before it was released by a small group of users who reported having the problem with their AIM accounts. Knowing those two things, we decided to release the fix to all beta users because if we didn't there would be a whole lot of people unable to log in to AIM.

We started getting reports of this problem as we were wrapping up an alpha release (we were literally about to flip you guys over to the new version) so we dropped that and started working on this AIM problem to minimize the number of affected people.

There's no sense in releasing a patch for an old version when it's about to be outdated in less than 24 hours. It's just a waste of time for us; it has nothing to do with a group of users getting multiple updates in a short time span.

If you're an alpha user and you need AIM that badly, feel free to switch back to the beta temporarily. Other than the few minutes it takes to update, you won't lose anything. When the alpha is released you can always switch back.

chris you still don't seem to understand how the alpha builds work. i don't know the inner workings of the development team here, but i'm guessing it's a lot more complicated to add the fix to two different sets of code.

the alpha builds contain features and fixes that the non-alpha build does not. so patching both isn't going to be so simple.

it's more important to apply the patch to the non-alpha builds because those users expect and require stability. alpha users should know what they're getting into when they become alpha users.

perhaps you're just not cut out to be an alpha tester. if you rely that heavily on your messenger service then you should stick to the non-alpha releases.

when they release the patch for the alpha users it sounds to me like it's going to be another major patch with many fixes and possibly features, this is why they didn't release it last night. if there was a show stopper they wouldn't be back to fix it till morning.

it doesn't take a software developer to understand their reasoning.

also, why go back to pidgin? why not just remove the alpha build file and revert to the stable release? that would have been quicker no doubt.

@SacredCultivator: Fixed :)

Just a note... This is a Public Release right? Yet the Blog Entry is filed under "Alpha" =X

@Carbonize/@Brandon - Trust me, I get the fact that being an alpha user means that my version will most likely be unstable.

But if there is a fix available - the very fact that I'm an alpha user should mean that I get that fix before anyone else. Not the other way around. I understand being careful about releasing updates to live/production/non-alpha users - their copy needs to be stable.

Saying that I should stop bitching about my version being unstable because it is an alpha release is fine. But apply that same logic to the fact that if they would have released the update to ALL users - and there was a "showstopping" bug - then I would have to accept it also BECAUSE I'M AN ALPHA TESTER.

I've already switched back to Pidgin. I am a software developer myself and this kind of release behavior is unacceptable.

Have to say I'm with Chris Jones on this one. It seems...misguided...to throw a fix to the regular users but not the alpha users. So what if we end up getting 2 updates/patches in a single day? It's not like it would be the first time the alpha is updated and then updated several more times in order to 'fix' the previous updates.

I'd been generally very happy with your product since switching over from Trillian Pro...but this did not make me happy. I'm not yet to a point where I'll start looking for other software, but I also will bear this episode in mind if it proves to be a trend rather then a one-shot occurrence.

@Chris Jones - The magic word is ALPHA. A product that is classed as Alpha may be bug riddled and is used at the testers own risk. An Alpha release is much more likely to result in bug reports than a stable release and this is why alphas are only released early in the day so that they can hopefully fix any major bugs BEFORE the end of the day.

It's called common sense.

i think you guys are having trouble understanding how the whole alpha thing works.

you don't like it stick to the non-alpha release, simple no?

it's better for them to make a major release at the beginning of the day so if there are any major bugs they can get them patched before they leave for the day, makes complete sense to me.

the non-alpha users got just a single fix, alpha users will be getting a much larger update.

when you decide to alpha test you give up your right to b**ch about a lot of things as i see it.

trust me, you'd be a lot more PO'd if they had released the next build to alpha users and there was a show stopping bug.

Seems this update kicked out custom emoticons.....

Don't joke about switching back to pidgin..I don't know if I could go back after digsby. But fix aim this sucks.

You don't like doing major releases at the end of the day? But doing one at the end of the day for non-alpha users is somehow okay? How does that make any sense?

I'm an alpha user so that I can have the latest and greatest and test the newest features. Seems kind of backwards that I'm getting a patch a day later than regular users.

I've been without AIM for the whole day. This makes me want to switch back to Pidgin.

This AIM thing is really kind of annoying... :\
Why not release just the patch for AIM now? There are probably a lot of people who need to use it in the evening...

@rimmon: We have a new alpha release going out with many other fixes besides this one. We don't like to do major releases at the end of the day so we decided to hold it back until the morning.

Hi there.

Just out of interest: Why are the alpha users spared? Fortunately I don't really need the messenger right now but if I was I would be slightly upset now.^^

Anyway, keep up the good work. :)