My studio: Design2Dev.com built a Mac/PC desktop video conference app that will need daily stress-testing from real users.<p>Is there a service that can provide these users on-demand for 15minutes? at reasonable price too ;-) *Users should be in the US or Canada with decent cable or fiber connections. thanks
Suppose you are paying these people $10 an hour, that has got to be at least $2.50 * 50 = $125 a pop.<p>That wouldn't be so bad (less than a full-time tester) but it's actually going to cost much more than that and be a lot of hassle.<p>You see, people with decent cable and fiber connections are more likely to be employed and less likely to drop what they are doing every day for $2.50. They are probably going to have to clear at least 30 min from their schedule so $5-$10 for a day's participation is more fair. You have to cut 50 checks a month, probably hire an FTE to manage the program. If 10% of the people have trouble and need tech support you may need to handle 5 simultaneous support calls. Once people start getting bored maybe 30 people show up on any given day -- it's not realistic to sanction people for not showing up other than withholding pay, even then one of them might take you to small claims court if they think you've ripped them off. You'll need to recruit a larger panel than you think and have somebody always recruiting new members as others churn away.<p>If it is a service somebody else provides they have to do all that plus manage entropy that comes from you. They'd also like to make a profit. If it is $1000 a day you are talking a lot more than a full-time coder or tester cost.<p>A plan (B) is as follows: stress test the server with an automated system. That's got to be a lot more affordable.<p>A plan (C): embed telemetry in the client and server and see it as a sales task to recruit a group of "heavy consumers"; maybe people who want to do church or karate lessons on line.