Purpose of the PTE
The PTE was made public for testing by players by the developers. It's primary purpose was to test out changes in a 'live' environment after thorough testing on the internal test worlds. The intention is that it will not be 'played' in the same way as production worlds but will be the source for reports of bugs that have been missed by the development team.
All reports made here and via other routes are looked into and an attempt to reproduce the bug or issue that has been reported. Sometimes the development team may ask for further details or give a method for getting further detail via your browser.
Each PTE will be taken down eventually and a fresh start made on a new one when the needs of the developers justify such a move. It has happened that those needs precede the killing of the fortress and the timing of the replacement or removal of a PTE is soley at the discretion of the developers.
