To be fair to the Tidypics team, there is no "Elgg 1.8 beta" that I am aware of. Not yet anyway.

There is code in SVN under heavy development.

I'm not sure that it is fair to ask plugin developers to release code when the core code has not even been released yet.

Kevin is correct, there is no official release of Elgg 1.8 to date.

so i should stay on Elgg 1.7 ?

FX - the usual rule for all plugin-based web applications applies.

Test the core code and all available plugins for it.

If it works for you then you have the option to run with it.

In terms of official releases, it is quite typical for many web applications for there to be a beta release for the core code, followed by a period of time (usually several months) of testing and plugin development. For applications like Drupal and Joomla, it can take 6 months or more for popular plugins and themes to be upgraded once a final (not beta) core release is available.

@FX : I have a code that just works with elgg 1.8 but doesn't confirm to elgg's coding standards.If you wish,then pm me and I will send you the code with the hope that you do some changes and release it to the community.I am bit busy now with some other work.However,my advice don't use elgg 1.7.elgg 1.8 is much much fun and if you want I can mail you all the just working plugins like polls,event_calendar,worldview,feeds,etc.