What platform do you use to communicate with beta readers?
What platform do you use to communicate with beta readers?
I've been interested in learning about the process of beta reading, and one thing I haven't seen touched on a lot is the means of communication for talking to betas.
Do you use a rich text editor like Word or Google Docs, adding them as an editor? Or do you simply post the work as you normally would, and communicate with your beta in the comments? Or do you post the work without tags or any way for outsiders to easily access it, and let them comment on it that way?
Or is there some other method you use, or you've heard of others using?
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For conversation with beta readers, I usually do DMs over the platform where they usually do their beta work stuff, which these days tends to be Discord but I've had some cases of PMing over topical forums's message systems.
For editing docs, my usual workflow is I set up a cryptpad or etherpad version of the document for them to edit and annotate and then we compare notes. Other times I use my own hedgedoc instance when what I want is light notes or minor fixes, or I just e-mail the document over.
I've been looking for some sort of fandom-established privacy-respecting Google Docs alternative but so far no one seems to have done it, which is strange considering using Google for that kind of stuff give s enough ammo to some evil companies (ahem... Nintendo) to sue two or more people in one go.