Should major Mahalo revisions be tested out in a "Sand Box" by it's top users before public release?

I would have to say 99% yes. I only leave out that 1% because I am relatively new to the whole sandbox idea and maybe I am missing something thats right out in front of me. The new profiles would have fared a bit better if Mahalo had lets say 10 or 20 (or more?) very active every day Mahalo Answers users try the profiles out first.

There would have been some immediate functionality issues addressed and hopefully rectified before the release of the new profiles. I do not see how this would hurt... one more day, maybe two days to let the people who use Mahalo Answers every day try out and offer insights into the usefulness of many of the new changes to Mahalo Answers especially the ones which will fundamentally alter they way a user interacts with other Mahaloians and the website itself. Maybe there is a larger picture I am missing and the reason Mahalo does not sandbox changes and let the users try before they buy is these are all pieces of a puzzle to large to see the entirety of at the moment.. I don't know.

All I really do know is if Mahalo had sandboxed the new profiles many of the users active in the sandbox would have offered some criticisms and suggestions to add or change in the functionality department before its release. I cannot see where this would have harmed. I can only see a sandboxing of new features as helping.

It sounds counterintuitive but when it comes to technical literacy and Mahalo literacy, the most most active users are also likely to be the most adaptive. I think the new profiles are great, but someone who is less used to navigating busy sites might have trouble. You know what, I bet most people who answer more than a couple questions a day figured it out pretty quickly - we use the Internet a lot.

Let the developers at the other end test it, and then throw it to the wolves. The real acid test for any sort of Internet platform is less technically literate users. They are the ones that will show you if it is going to work or not.

Plus, putting the regular users in a sandbox, even for a little while, takes away from the time that they can spend within the site.

I think that is an excellent idea. This way they would be able to assure that the revisions work properly and are valid. I do this part-time and it results in a better product being released.

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