I don't pay for beta products! Especially since x.0 products tend to be beta anyway. A lot of developers are using their public as paying beta testers anyway. I'm talking about big and small, software and hardware. Gone are the times when a products ships with very few problems. It upsets me to no end that people are asking users to test their products for pay.

My understanding of alpha and beta terms goes along the lines of what the majority of people have commented here. Perhaps developers need to re-educate people on a grand scale of the "new" defitions of these terms, or as Scott said, invent something new...