The test patch forum was opened and the thread moved there at the same time that the E12 server became available.
The test patch thread was originally in the mods section because the earlier test patches were primarily about changes related to mods. This is fairly obvious if you look at the change log.
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/106967
So then we didn't really need a whole forum section dedicated to a test patch that was all about mods.
Just recently some updates on the host side have required an updated client version. That point I delayed as much as possible, but now we are near the end of the life cycle of this test patch, so things need to be tested.
It does raise the question about making E12 'official' in the sense that it could be automatically downloaded by E clients using the auto updater. Some people might say that is a no-brainer, in the sense that it would be a good idea to provide more frequent updates like that. Maybe they are right, I'm not sure. We haven't done that before. Official updates have always come with an announcement and a new full version. This method has worked for us for many years. Roughly 20 years, I guess.
Either way, it probably would make more sense to use a better installer instead of the self-extracting archive that has served us quite well up to now. But I understand we are moving into an era where many people own a PC and play games but are confused about simply moving a file into a known location on their computer. This can seem hilarious to those of us who have used PCs since the days of MS-DOS.
But I do understand the convenience of the proper installer and I am looking into that a bit.