First, it would be my position that all software that is commonly available and used by end-users should be on topic. This specific piece of software has always been declared *"alpha"* by the creators. That's partly because they're so far from their own goal. The software saw its initial release in 1998. Over 20 years ago. ReactOS isn't "all-but-abandoned" in fact, there are 150 developers/users right now on IRC (Freenode/#ReactOS). That's 10% the size of Debian. The project has [hundreds of committers on Github.](https://github.com/reactos/reactos) This month it became self-hosting and was written about in The Register (which turned me onto it), and other publications
* [ReactOS 0.4.9 release metes out stability and self-hosting, still looks like a '90s fever dream](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/24/reactos_gets_stability/)
* [Btrfs now boots ReactOS, a free and open source alternative for Windows NT](https://hub.packtpub.com/btrfs-boots-reactos-free-open-source-for-windows/)
* [ReactOS 0.4.9 eleased](http://www.osnews.com/story/30605/ReactOS_0_4_9_released)
This seems like an somewhat eerie distinction because it's entirely subjective.
"Beta" (definition)
----
I don't believe people here have an understand of what "beta" means. It doesn't mean anything concrete. Most software is actually on a time-release which means a release only means "having support." It is not at all a statement on bugs, capability, or infrastructure. So for example, when you release software every 6-months the functionality you get from the bi-yearly release is only guaranteed to be "supported". It's not magically less-buggy or more capable, future releases often even future beta releases will *usually* be less buggy, more capable, etc.
Here is some software that is **always** in beta (unsupported) and never can be released such as
* Debian Testing (610 questions): https://superuser.com/search?q=Debian+Testing+is%3Aquestion
* Ubuntu Testing (18.10 is released in Oct 2018) https://superuser.com/search?q=Ubuntu+18.10
* Chrome Beta https://superuser.com/search?q=%22Chrome+Beta%22+is%3Aquestion
* Windows 8 Preview (392 Questions) https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/windows-8-preview
* Windows 10 Preview (332 Questions) https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/windows-10-preview
Clearly, none of this is any different than ReactOS. Or, MAME. MAME adopts a different definition of "beta" from the article from Wikipedia,
> The developers of MAME do not intend to release a version 1.0 of their emulator program[28] because **there will always be more arcade games to emulate and thus the project will never be truly "finished."** Accordingly, version 0.99 was simply followed by version 0.100.
[We still have 16 questions on MAME](https://superuser.com/search?q=mame+is%3Aquestion)
So for MAME the goal is total emulation of Arcade games, and so long as any games can't be emulated the software is in "Beta".
Pre 1.0?
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And the list of pre-1.0 software on my computer alone (list generated with `dpkg -l | awk '{print $3, '\t', $2}' | grep '^0' | less`) includes,
* camora
* dash
* i2p
* xfburn
* telnet & Linux NetKit (which includes telnet)
* ufraw
Not-niceness
====
Second, this is clearly an action made with prejudice. I was never made aware of even the conversation. After only **1 hour** and one submitted answer the user (who doesn't like me) chose the mod's answer for supporting the close-hammer. For those watching this is the conversation in the chat that is/was allowed. Didn't want to put forward the effort to tag me, but did mention the conversation in chat!
[![enter image description here][1]][1]
This kind of stuff does not make for a "nice" community. This is about a specific user that doesn't like me.
Let's also look at this,
> Before I vote to close a large number of questions from a single user, I wanted to get community input, especially since the closure reason isn't an official one. I don't want this to appear to be a vendetta.
There are 11 total questions on ReactOS. Most of which **are still not closed**. We even have a tag [tag:reactos] that was created years ago!
* https://superuser.com/questions/tagged/reactos
Let's actually consider a policy here.
Thanks!
History
====
[![enter image description here][2]][2]
The last time this became a coordinated attack, Journeyman had to stand up and end the drama. And, it did end. My contributions even got more upvotes since then! We need the same statement again. This isn't productive and there is no rule against "beta" or "alpha" software. I am actually using and solving problems with ReactOS, and acting in good faith.
[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/96O3Y.png
[2]: https://i.sstatic.net/lJgcu.png