Why is Discourse still in Beta?

[Moin]

There is also a topic in #howto:faq

Is Discourse always in "beta"?

I noticed that every now and then my Discourse site send me an email telling that a new version is available to install, but every time the version is “x.y.z.beta something”, so I’d like to know: is Discourse always some “beta” version? Is it good to install in a production environment (i.e. to serve hundreds, maybe thowsands people)? Or does this concerns only free and not “cloud” versions?