If you count Pirates in - which is nothing but a test project - there's no reason not to have BOINC Alpha.
Although boinc.dk hasn't added Pirates to their stats, it has 1518 users with credit while BOINC alpha has 34. And nobody KNOWS about BOINC alpha as seen from the post by Joe K. Whether it is added or not almost allusers will be unaffected.
Why should there be a distinction between BURP and "scientific" projects? I can understand a difference between boinc testing projects and "useful" ones, but burp is (will be) public and when it gets going the credit would run into the millions as well.
Boinc Alpha, Set@Home Beta Test and CPDN Alpha all
and LHC alpha. Is BOINC Beta still in existence?
BOINC Alpha ought to have about 80 with credit. It will have some of the most well known names around BOINC. As for the user that assumed it was for testing end users machines for compatibility, no, it is for testing the development of S@H and BOINC. The Alpha testers run with new software for a while to see if anything horrible happens to them, and that version does not get released if anything does.
If BOINC Beta still exists, I cannot find it. Does anybody remember the URL?
CPDN Alpha has not AFAIK generated any credit yet (trickles seem to be broken).
The original LHC alpha is gone. The new one rolled its credit into the new LHC so there is no need there (At least, I got credit for the Alpha work when LHC transferred over so I assume the others did too).