Logging tests of pre-releases

[hturner]

One way we ask community members to contribute is by testing pre-releases of R (https://developer.r-project.org/Blog/public/2021/04/28/r-can-use-your-help-testing-r-before-release/). However, we only ask them to report if something goes wrong. So people could be contributing without any recognition and perhaps there is a lot of time wasted with people running the same tests.

To encourage testing, we might set up a way to report test results. This would need to be done in a fairly standardized way, perhaps adding a line to a table, like the CRAN test results tables, possibly with one column for a free text comment.

[llrs]

Recording test in progress or configuration tested will help all.

I thought the petition was to test with different configuration, external software and specially interactive code for which, for starters like me I wouldn't even know what and how to report. Maybe some guidelines about it would help. Even if just a table with some headings and a minor description. Maybe this could be expanded on the R dev guide's chapter?

Maybe this could have some gamification side where new external programs, OS or configuration combinations reported receive some "points". This could be attractive to "younger" generations.