I spend a lot of time under the illusion that I'm my own worst critic. While I try to hold myself to a high standard, and don't often live up to it, I at least aim high before I fall short. I'm extremely detail-oriented... especially when looking over someone else's shoulder. It's only when I invite other critics to the party that I realize how easy I've been on myself, how many corners I've cut, mistakes I've made, and how much better I can do.

With fresh eyes, desire to help, and the necessary distance from the nuts and bolts of this endeavor to question everything, you beta testers have provided me a wealth of ideas, big and small, on how to improve Charitocracy. I still have some big ideas to digest, but at least most of the smaller ones have been tackled embraced and are now visible on the test site.  Consider this a Charitocracy open house for critics!

If you missed the last beta test, feel free to jump on now. Fake credit card: 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future expiration date and any 3-digit CVC. It is certainly not too late for any and all feedback. See the beta test announcement for caveats/known issues.

For those of you who already beta tested, feel free to jump back on, see what's changed, which of your reported bugs have been addressed, and then please try out the new WYSIWYG comment editor to make sure it works well enough. I've left your accounts exactly as they were, though of course you're welcome to sign up again with another email account. (If you've forgotten your password, go ahead and try to recover like you would in real life!)

Here's a summary of the bigger ticket items I've addressed since the first beta that started 2 weeks ago:

• Support retina displays (high-dpi avatars, logos, icons, etc.)
• Use simple WYSIWYG editor for discussion posts
• Add vote summary to donor account widget
• Big reminder to hit Submit button after entering CC #
• Improve layout for small screens
• Fix momentary flash of menu during page load on small screens
• Donor map can go full-screen
• Make discussion comments editable forever
• Add alphabetical sort of causes
• Use display name (vs. username) if set in profile
• Limit length of display names shown
• Change donation page now shows all 4 plans, defaults to current plan
• Make one-time donations adjustable on its page, not just in widget
• Add 'apply' button when changing split vote percentages
• Detect when in iOS Facebook browser, provide instructions
• Add note about checking spam folder if password reset email not received
• Make social share pop-up less obtrusive on large screens

I'll be traveling non-stop for the coming week, but will check in on the Charitocracy open house from time to time, and look forward to your criticism. Bring it on!