As a beta tester, I expect major changes - but I've also seen a bunch of startups fail because they left their general users in the dark. So when major changes came, they all freaked the hell out. I'm still learning my way around GitHub, but you can bet that the majority of Steemit users don't have a clue what a pull request or hardfork is. Sadly, there isn't one "safe zone" where newbies/general users can get this information. They forget that they are part of a grand experiment possibly because they're so focused on their wallet that they forget to look up and see what's on the Steemit horizon.
So, yeah... tach it out - but please find a way to let your user base know that changes are coming. Posting it in feeds is too easy to miss.