NOT A TEST - Question about testing.

Testing zone
21

Hey all, thanks for the responses.
I probably should have made it a little clearer on what I meant and I can make a edit on the main post.

But I actually meant big mistakes. Like the stitch count being way off. For the number of increases or decreases they have said in a row, it doesnt equal to the stitch count they are saying. There math isnt correct or their stitches dont line up, and stitches need to be changed to get it to line up how they want for the pattern or for how it is meant to turn out.
When I share these with the creator I always explain my findings. And I give a correction to the count of stitches needed.

If your pattern has been rows and you are chaining and turning at the end, but now you need them to continue around the whole piece, not stopping and turn work. You need to have that explained otherwise the person following the pattern spends an hour or more wondering why it isnt working only to figure it out after starting again and again what they were missing in the instructions. So explaining that you are doing continues rounds or rows. Etc. Those big things that make your pattern readable to everyone. Otherwise your the only one who knows how to do the pattern. ???

Not personal preference, what I like will be different to the next person. Those things are personal choice and thats all up to the pattern creator. Those arent the things I meant. If I suggest anything like that as a creative option for the creator I wouldn’t be offended or bothered if they dont take it. Its their baby, their pattern.

I just mean, that if I am testing a decent size pattern and taking my time to really make sure it works, to help you make it the best it can be. Make sure it makes sense so others can have fun creating your pattern too, then posting the pattern with absolutely no corrections is a little disrespectful and wasting testers time. If a creator doesnt want to fix mistakes then just post the pattern, dont bother with testing.

Hope that makes more sense.

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22

:smile: true.
I appreciate you responce.

And thats what I meant. Errors and mistakes in the pattern that makes your pattern work or not. The actual outcome of the finished product being what it is meant to be or not.
Stitch count, stitches issues, etc.

Personal prefences are just that. And that is all up to the creator.

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23

Thanks for your response. Appreciate it.

And I am with you. Testers shouldn’t rewrite a creators pattern or think their opinion or personal prefence should be what the pattern shows.
I just meant the reason that creators ask people to test. For errors, spelling mistakes, maths isnt adding up, stitch count. Those things.

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24

Thanks for your honest response. Appreciate it. And I am not a pattern creator. I just dont have that skill. So I very much appreciate the effort you as creators put into your work. And I have huge respect for it as I know I could not create a pattern.

I never expect that if I just have an opinion on something that a creator will take it.

Just big errors and mistakes, this is why you test a pattern.

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25

This is pretty close to my experience that lead me to this post. The designer wasnt really responding to my messages. And left it sitting there before they finally marked it as finished for me. But never responded to the stitch count errors or any of the other mistakes I sent.

And I always do it private. I dont write it in the journal. I send it direct to them.

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26

Yes and those are just personal preference. So those are up to you as the creator. I dont expect a creator to make changes to their pattern just because of my preferences.

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27

This example is 100% what I meant.
I am talking the pattern isnt easy to read, riddled with mistakes. Makes no sense to anyone but them.
Free or not, why test then. Just post it if thats the way you want it.

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28

Last tester had a pattern that went from 24 to 41 in 1 row that we were just adding 8 to then later the fins we were adding in only went to 34. So stopped what I was doing sent 2 different messages in the chat they created and a week went by now it was due May 1st never heard from them. So got mad and left the chat and aborted pattern. Had someone else do the same thing not sure why they release a pattern to be tested if they are not even going to respond to testers.

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29

Thanks for the responce.

And what you have said is exactly right.

My preference are that. Mine. A creator should not have to change a pattern for me.

But like you have said mistakes. Errors. Stuff that makes the pattern unreadable to completely messy.
So I do my journal always and I provide photos in it of my progress so others can see the stages of it coming together. Any mistakes I find I contact the creator directly and always explain myself. I never just say fix this and not show a reason why they would need to.
And we have been told as testers not to write it in the journal, contact the creator. So I mean if their pattern then gets published riddle with mistakes and errors. And I had to changed a lot of stitches to get the end product I did. Should I then go back into my journal later and reflect that. Because otherwise from my journal entry it looks like this pattern is great and works, when it didnt and it needed a lot of fixes.

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30

Totally agree with you. And thats mostly what I have experienced.

I know to give feeback on errors, stitch count & mistakes. If I have suggestions I always say that it is just a suggestion, they dont have to use it at all.

I am meaning the pattern has huge mistakes and will be unreadable to lots of people. Without correcting the pattern the end product will not be what they are telling people who do their pattern.

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31

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

And I agree, suggestions are just that. And I dont get upset if they dont take it. Thats their pattern their choice.

And like you said, when testing you can learn ither ways to do it and make note for yourself and do your preference and have it the way you want.

It just the massive mistakes and errors that makes a pattern not doable that I think why test at all then?

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32

Your patterns are amazing!
And that comes down to your talent, attention to detail and the time and effort you put in.

And if a tester picked up on a mistake like the stitch count was wrong, I know you would fix it.

Personal prefences and suggestion are at your discretion. You know what works for your patterns.

But I guess that is what will set quality patterns apart from others. If they dont care enough to fix their mistakes their patterns will never be the quality of creators who put the care and time into theirs.

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33

Sorry to hear that. Tester and creators need to work together and not ghost each other.

I am never mean in my delivery to the creator about mistakes etc. I always word it carefully and i will have solutions and do the math and provide it with the error i found to help the creator out. I am always respectful of the time and effort they have put in.

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34

That’s always amazing! You know a tester is good if they’re nice, responsive, and full of ideas:(and sometimes constructive criticism!)

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35

Exactly! It goes both ways. This testing thing is a relationship.

If we have testers that ghost creators and creaters that ghost the testers. It leads to these frustrations.

Good on you for taking yourself off the project. I might have to remind myself I can do that. If I am giving my time and effort to help you with your pattern and you want to ghost your testers. Then I dont need to test for you.

Vise versa too. I expect creators to boot testers that dont respond or do their test.

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36

So the true questuon is, why do designers that (seemingly) have no intention of fixing errors and responding to the testers concerns, make tester calls to begin with?

Well I don’t think that you will get anwsers from those types of designers. If they aren’t willing to communicate in a private chat, they certainly won’t state their reasons on a public post. HOWEVER, my own silly little theory would be: they want attention on their shops/patterns. They may want the multiple post out there to gain “anticipation” for the release. OR they feel like that’s just a step you have to take/box that you have to check off the to-do list as a designer. They for some unforeseen reason don’t understand the point of testing, that its to make sure your pattern can be used by others.

Don’t get me wrong, every once in a while some people’s schedule gets totallly messed up by an unforeseen event and maybe they had the pattern set to release by a certain time and have yet to get their life back on track. But if they are still active on the app (like commenting on other posts or even making more tester calls) then yeah, a total slap in the face.

I have had a couple of times where a tester has told me my st count was wrong, and as soon as I saw that, I went in and checked. Some of them were absolutely wrong :sweat_smile: and I had some where they weren’t. I try to fix things as quickly as possible when I can tell from the math alone its not working out. But when I have those where the math is correct, I will wait until at least other person gets to that part of the pattern and see if they say anything.

But as far as the journal, I will do the thumbs down on the “easy to follow” and “do you recommend”. I will then written in detail in the journal my experience with the pattern and where I had troubles, and overall why I dont recommend the pattern. If its a free pattern I would probably just leave all that in the written portion of the journal. But if it going to be a paid pattern, I would screenshot my review or just the words “pattern needs work” (or something along those lines) and make that my latest journal photo, so I would show up in the reviews. Maybe thats passive-aggressive, but after leaving my suggestions and notes about the pattern and basically being ghosted, I could get petty.

I have never had to do that for a paid pattern, I’ve personally only experienced this once (for a free pattern) during the many tests I’ve done. And I put practically everything in the groupchat and even had some of the other testers say that they used my notes to finish the pattern. Its honestly a sucky situation, feels like a waste of time and honestly resources, can even make you dislike a pattern that you intially liked.

At the end of the day, as a tester, I would take note of these designers and basically avoid any tester calls from them in the future. If they happen to have a design that you really love, go to their most recent released patterns and check those journals to see if the issues you experienced are still present.

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37

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

All of this right here. I think you have hit the nail on the head.

Their testing is probably because they think they have to. Or want attention for their shop etc. And they are the ones that I wont test for again.

And thank you for all your advice too! I will make sure to keep this all in mind for furtire tests.

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38

Thank you! That means a lot to me! I definitely always strive to make my patterns as understandable and yet still creative as possible!

It truely can be a night and day difference once you find those designers where you tell they put in a lot of effort into their pattern writing.

And I will say that there’s definitely a learning curve. My first patterns I have fixed up recently because I have learned so much since them. But if its like the 10th+ pattern they are releasing (of similar skill level) then yeah, red flag…

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39

I know that’s what you meant. I wanted to express the items I said for anyone reading this post as helpful tips.
Spelling errors and stitch counts are absolutely important as you stressed that’s why I said some shouldn’t be designers. So I agree….
I appreciate you bringing this topic up.

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40

Thank you :blush:

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