To be fair, using an alpha version in production isn't always that rare. I mean, back when I used forum scripts like vBulletin, people ran alphas and betas and

To be fair, using an alpha version in production isn't always that rare. I mean, back when I used forum scripts like vBulletin, people ran alphas and betas and release candidates on live sites all the time. Were there sometimes issues? Sure, but a lot of the time, they worked fine. And that's not even getting into games and online services, where 'beta' never ends and you end up paying for alphas and early betas of things all the time.