"I'm Done With Private Beta" - Muhammad Saleem

Excellent post. As for some of the comments, I don't believe 'private betas' encompass the possible range of problems that can occur with a public launch, the subset of users is too limited to gain a true insight into proper loading. A 'beta' is a beta, it means users expect problems, so why not open publicly and do away with private, and gain a true experience with the software - Mo Kargas

I know we've struggled with what's most semantically correct to call our current status at Flickchart - we've settled on "public beta", since we are letting the public (read: strangers to us) on to the site via invites, but not letting just anyone sign up hitting the site randomly just yet. Previous to that, we were in what we called "private beta", where basically only people we knew and trusted had accounts. Before that, we were in "alpha", where the only people with accounts - were the developers. - Nathan Chase