I develop a social network plugin that turns a WordPress site into a social network (www.wpsymposium.com).

Your thoughts mirror the evolvement of the plugin release strategy. To start with "fix quick, release often" was considered a plus, but feedback was that in theory it was good, but in reality it was a pain for site admins.

To summarise our experience to where we are now we have a plan/develop/test/fix/release plan with nightly builds and release candidates available pre-release for those who want more involvement.

A calmer more managed release cycle has been welcomed over the last 12 months, particularly for those admins with large or corporate sites.