Want to make sure I understand this.
Once the beta phase starts, all new builds will be available to Alpha backers FIRST, for two weeks, before the beta backers are able to try it? So it's a fragmented beta process? Trying to understand if this is the case and if so what is the point.
This was a terrible piece of muddled and inconsistent PR from FD.
Announcements from folks that should know (Michael and David) were contradictory.
The consensus seems to be that there will be a two week gap between the alpha testers playing, and the beta following, for the first beta release. After that the expectation is that the gap will be a few hours maximum, unless something has gone pear shaped. That last point makes sense to me (but then I'm in the alpha) as a last minute piece of QA before they risk letting a gazillion people loose.
This lot has thus been further interpreted to mean that the current Alpha release (Alpha 4, but already up to the 4.03 dot version) is essentially the same thing as the premium beta. Even that has not been confirmed by FD, but it seems to be unlikely in the extreme that FD would just let the alpha backers into PB1 on 30th May, and make the beta backers wait 2 weeks: it would be a spectacular PR own goal.
Frankly, FD has been asked many times, and have gone out of their way to avoid clearing this up. Which from their end makes sense, since delivering against promises is so much easier when you don;t make any, or when the ones you make are so vague that they could mean almost anything.
So, watch this space.