What is the point of the preview grid(s)?

Seriously, are the for finding bugs, for judging resident opinion of new features, or something else entirely?

If it is for evaluating the opinion of new features, then go and read the preview forum posts on the new camera stuff

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(I know you have already commented in one of these, Torley). The opinion expressed there is very much weighted against much of the UI for the (very nice) new features, and yet, having just checked it in 1.11.0.8, nothing has changed.

If it is for finding bugs, well, I have bug-reported a couple of things, neither of them serious, I'll freely admit, both related to the world-freeze in snapshotting. I got a linden reply to one of them which made it appear that he hadn't even tried to repro it in-world, so I responded with some more details and clarifications. Again, both bugs still there, and one of them, once it rolls out, will end up being in the category of "we can't change it now, people are used to the way it works" *sigh*

So, are those of us who do try out the preview and report usability problems and bugs wasting our (and your) time?

One tough thing off the bat which I know a lot about, Bitzer: it's frustrating when bugs are fixed, but they're not the bugs YOU reported.

I will clarify this: we officially do know that there are strong desires to have an option to revert to the "old-style" snapshot behavior. Yes, that includes me, personally. (Me and my many thousands of piccies...) All the feedback in that thread will be included in the developer file on the issue.

We are amenable to change, and you've likely also noticed that at LAST, we can hide HUDs in snapshots again via an easy checkbox.

While historically, reverting to older behavior may have dragged on awhile, I note the times it DID get done. Like Property Lines being persistent between sessions.

I'm also going to check with QA about your bug reports, and add the info in those too so we're more aware of what's going on.

Preview is not a waste of time. Far from that. I have seen much proactive change come out of Resident participation in it. For what is broken, often, it's hard to see everything that's already been fixed.

In addition, we have the formation of a new inhouse Rx team--"Rx" meaning "Resident Experience" and focused on usability. You'll be hearing more about it in the future. Apparently, I've just joined the team... stay tuned...