I don't mean to criticize anyone in particular, and I greatly appreciate all the work everyone is doing to keep DNN and it's modules up to date and working, but this is pretty ridiculous that each step in the "long" release process is taking 2+ weeks!  Keep in mind that many of us have been waiting for a year and a half to get the PM features that are in this release.

There has got to be a way to push through these bigger projects that many people are waiting on through the release process to ensure it doesn't spend months waiting.

This has been something that has been bothering me as well. I am working with other core team members to hopefully change this in the future.

What happened to the "DNN philosophy" release often and come with a stabilization release right after ?

It would be good to have a deadline set. We are waiting on it for more then a couple of months now. The release version doesn't need to be perfect. I will gladly help you to fix all the bugs i can find. What I do mind is waiting endlessly while looking at the stale release tracker every day. I have a client websites that cannot go live without the forums module. I cannot tell my client that the development of the webiste will be suspended indefenitely becouse "the forums are still in the release tracker".