What I am about to say comes from my experiences as not only a beta tester but as a developer of many mods and games.
It seems most people are applying just to be able to try it out early. I signed up because I like this mod, and because I want to contribute to it being better than it already is. I feel my extensive experiences will contribute alot. Don't sign up just because you want to play it, sign up because you want to hammer it with everything you got, and write up a really good report describing exactly how to reproduce bugs you found. (Given that said bugs are not random occurances of course..) When new version is released and if bugs are found afterwards that were never noticed during beta, the beta testers are partial to the blame. Lets not let that happen.
Instead of offering early congrats to anyone who might be selected, I offer a demand that whoever is selected will hopefully play their part as best they can and not take it for granted. Being a beta tester is an important position, yes you can have fun, but please take it seriously. All of us benifit from how well you perform your job. Make us proud.
-Adam
Half-Life Level Designer
http://www.angelfire.com/clone/adam321