In light of the new Fluther - What is the process of making the beta become live?

You have a beta of the site to test – when it’s ready to go live, is it just a simple copy & paste of the information? Tell us a little about what you guys are doing for those few hours that you leave us in the dark. What problems have been known to happen & why do they not happen during beta testing? Why does it take so gosh darn long to get it up & running? :)