Regarding beta-testers: Blaming the testers for problems is hacking pretty low on the food chain. Let's pose, as a hypothesis, a beta-testing system like this:

The testers cannot see the data on reported bugs, to know if the problem they encountered is already reported. The company actually decides to close a tester discussion forum they had used on the previous version, so testers can't see or talk to each other. The test forms are hopelessly tedious, requiring the tester to fill out redundant data like screen size, etc., which is not relevant to the bug being reported and could just as easily be stored permanently in a database. Once the bug is reported, there is no acknowledgement of receiving it, no communication about fixing it, and no request, eventually, for a regression test. Rarely, the tester gets an email from the company's QA manager asking a question about some bug or other. Eventually the product is released and the tester's bug has been ignored.

I can't imagine a test program actually being run that stupidly. But I was in one once; not a single fantasy in the description.

M