Thank you for your interest in the Emsisoft tester team. The team is a closed group of volunteers that help us to improve our existing and future products. Before I tell you how to apply, let me give you a few additional pieces of information about our (not so) little testing community and what we expect from you as a member of the tester team.
- Decent English skills
Nobody expects you to speak flawless English, but the ability to understand and communicate in English without too many problems is an absolute must. As a rule of thumb: If you have a hard time understanding this announcement without the help of an online translation service, you will have a very hard time as a tester and you may even get removed if nobody can decipher your posts and bug reports. - Minimum time commitment
Don't get us wrong. We won't clock you each week and see if you met a certain quota. But being a member of the tester team means you are expected to test our products on a regular basis. We estimate the minimum time required to keep up to date on the testing of one product to be at least 2 hours a week. So if you can't carve out those 2 hours a week from your regular schedule, testing may not be for you. - The need for confidentiality
Being a tester gives you access to quite a few privileged bits of information. Whilst we understand and appreciate your enthusiasm to want to share information about new builds or products with people outside, the information must be kept within the tester area of the forum only. - Testing has risks
We do our best to make all software builds as stable as possible, but accidents and mistakes happen. Therefore testing software comes with certain risks attached. Early builds especially may still contain serious bugs. Most likely at one point or another one of the testing builds will break your system. We need you to be prepared for that. So please make sure you either have a proven and strong backup solution at hand, or you test on dedicated (virtual) machines. - The will to learn
Being a good tester is more than just installing a software and saying whether it works or not. It may require you to learn new things and acquire new skills. We try to support you in this process by providing information and tutorials, but the will to learn is a basic prerequisite for every tester. - Be polite and open-minded
The tester team consists of volunteers like you and Emsisoft employees from all over the globe. While we love this kind of variety it has caused some troubles in the past. The people you will meet are all of different cultural, religious, linguistic and educational backgrounds. So we ask you to stay polite, to maintain an open mind and to give your dialog partner the benefit of the doubt whenever you see a potential conflict arise. - Stay away from colloquial language
Most of the tester team members don't speak English as their native language. So expect everything you say to be interpreted very literally by most of the testers. This can cause quite a few misunderstandings when colloquial language is involved, so we would recommend you stay away from it as far as possible.
Products scheduled for testing:
- Emsisoft Enterprise Console 1.0
- Emsisoft Anti-Malware 8.0
- Emsisoft Emergency Kit 4.0
- Online Armor 6.0
- Various component tests for future products
In general everyone who accepts and fulfills the requirements outlined above is welcome. To join please send me a PM with the following information:
- A few bits of information about yourself in order for me to get a rough idea of who you are, and what motivates you to want to join the tester team.
- A list of operating systems you are able to test on.
- A list of Emsisoft products you are most interested in testing.
- A list of any past or present participation in other closed testing programs.
