How do I know whether or not I'm using a Beta feature or experiencing a Beta bug?

I've been using the Beta for quite a while now, but I'm not sure what's different.

Does participating in the Beta mean "you'll occasionally see new changes/features before they're released"? Or does it just mean "you're running the bleeding-edge build that has not yet been deployed to all users"?

If it's the former, then how do we find out about new changes/features so we can know where to look for them and try them out?

If it's the latter, should we report any bug as a Beta bug, even if it may exist in both the stable and beta builds? Or should "Beta bug" only be used if we suspect the bug is a regression introduced by the Beta build?

I would like to know the answer to this question as well. They should have a beta.chess.com URL to discern between beta/live environments.

You won't know for sure unless there is forum post or Announcement about beta features that are new or updated.

Other than that, there are changes all the time to various parts of code that may only be presented to those in the beta. There is underlying code/feature sets that defines if something is delivered to beta, to some subset of members, or everyone. Essentially it is the same site for everyone but that process decides which code is active for members (i.e. there isn't actually a separate site).

Whether or not to decide if a bug is beta is to leave the beta and see if the problem exists there as well.

Please explain  "to some subset of members".  The partitions I envisioned were:
1. The production version.
2.The Beta version, typically soon to be released to production version.
3. Not released, internal to chess.com version.

How does the subset of members fit into this?

I think it just means that when a new feature is being tested, it's only tested with a certain number of users, (a.k.a. "a subset"), rather than everyone. There may be a particularly finicky feature that only needs ~15 people to test it. A different feature may require testing from as many people as possible, and in that case, they likely wouldn't use any "subset".

I think this is just their way of saying that the scope of any feature is limited in the amount of users, and this number is at their discretion. I assume people who've been beta testers the longest and provided the most amount of valuable/actionable feedback are prioritized and that they have some system for ranking people for how valuable they are as a beta tester. If you're only testing something with 50 people, you'd want to roll it out to the most experienced testers.

That's just my take, I hope that makes sense.

I had a strange experience...I'm playing a 10/10 game and it said that I abandoned the game when I DID NOT abandon it - so I lost the game and 15 rating points, was that some beta feature or is it just a bug in the code????

This inquiring mind wants to know!

Off topic, but a connection issue can sometimes manifest as an abandoned game without symptom of disconnection.

@ScroogeMcBird a subset can mean just staff, staff and beta, or a percentage of everyone else. It's apparently possible to be more fine grained than that, such a specific members, but for release testing and feedback it will be the larger groups.

I don't believe they do a subset of beta ever.

Which "subset of members" do you think is being asked about here then, if you disagree with my answer? Why would they roll out beta features to non-beta users? There's a long history of beta testing and I've never heard of a development team that talks about rolling out features to subsets of users, when they really mean that only staff members can access the features.

Generally, staff or dev team members can access development features. Things that aren't ready for live/beta testing. But I could be wrong. Maybe "subset" means "staff only". I suppose I find it hard to believe that a they'd be talking about rolling out features to subsets of members when they're really only talking about their own team.

The site will often release to beta and if there aren't bug reports, they'll slowly roll it out to other members as well, a small percentage at a time. Lower impact changes may roll out more quickly.

Most changes will go out to Staff before going to beta too.

How was my question off-topic?

The topic is how to know what code/features is beta vs not. Disconnects are something that can happen and really isn't a beta issue and likely not due to any bugs.

hhhhmm - ok - thank you

Exactly what I'd just said. Lord, you're pedantic.

I was clarifying what I meant by subset; i.e. a subset of non-beta, non-staff members

Typically Beta is just for pre-bug testing of new features before being released to the greater community. If you want an actual separation, I would recommend logging out of your chess.com account and using that to view the old features/screen and the new ones. Chess.com Beta Developers are usually good about announcing new features but are usually officially announced in beta a couple of days after you can start using them. The whole purpose of Beta, is to test features, UI Improvements, etc... (Such as Leagues) for bugs, user feedback, and general idea of how a feature will perform!