I don't think so, I believe we should keep up-to-date javadoc, but maybe pointing to released versions javadocs.
 Or we could tweak the layout :
- `current` == latest released version => `http://site.mockito.org/mockito/docs/current/org/mockito/Mockito.html`
- `release/2.0.0` => `http://site.mockito.org/mockito/docs/2.0.0/org/mockito/Mockito.html`
- `beta/3.0.0.beta.xxxx` => `http://site.mockito.org/mockito/docs/beta/3.0.0.beta.xxxx/org/mockito/Mockito.html`

We could have some way with javascript injection to have some menu that help switch to other versions.

Anyway I think we could safely purge beta javadoc publication once 2.0.0 release https://github.com/mockito/mockito/tree/gh-pages/docs
 This issue description is absolutely horrible when I read it back now. It was mainly concerning the version issues, which should be fixed in #483. The other issue is indeed the documentation, but this is mainly an issue for the website, no?

Anyways, it would be to merge #483 sooner rather than later as Mockito 2.0 has been lingering for a while now. The longer we wait, the less incentivized will people be.
 This issue has been resolved with the new version scheme and possibility to manually release a version

Improve release generator
Currently releases are generated automatically and documentation pushed to the website. However, when we are publishing a major release, this should be changed.

Probably the best solution is to disable the automatic generation for now and invoke this manually. This does require some changes to the current Gradle release process.

Also, in #79 the changelog was improved. We should take a look at improving this as well.

TLDR: Take a good look at the Gradle release process and purge/improve tasks.

README.md buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumper.java version.properties
README.md buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumper.java version.properties
buildSrc/src/test/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumperTest.groovy
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1ffdd450c9..d3595e27fc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,24 +17,34 @@ See the [release notes page](https://github.com/mockito/mockito/blob/master/doc/
 
 ## Versioning
 
-Mockito has an automated release system, which imposed some change on how the version numbers work. While this is similar to [_semver_](http://semver.org/), there's some differences. Let's look at the following versions `1.10.19` and `2.0.5-beta` and `2.0.0` (not yet released). They follow this scheme:
+Mockito has an automated release system, which imposed some change on how the version numbers work.
+They follow this scheme:
 
 ```
-major.minor.build-tag
+major.minor.patch-tag.tagVersion
 ```
 
 | number | meaning                                                                               |
 | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
-| major  | major version, with most probably incompatible change in API and behavior             |
-| minor  | minor version, important enough change to bump this number                            |
-| build  | a released build number incremented automatically when a pull request is merged       |
-| tag    | will probably be `-beta` or just nothing (during beta, breaking changes are expected) |
+| major  | major version, backwards incompatible with the previous major version                 |
+| minor  | minor version, backwards compatible with added features                               |
+| patch  | patch version, small bug fixes or stylistic improvements                              |
+| tag    | *optional* beta or RC (release candidate). See below.                                 |
 
 That means:
 
-* `2.0.0` and `2.0.5-beta` are binary incompatible with `1.10.19`.
-* `2.0.5-beta` is the fifth release beta of version `2.0.0`.
-* `2.0.5-beta` is a work in progress, api may change and may not be graduated in version `2.0.0`.
+* `2.0.0` and `2.0.0-beta.5` are binary incompatible with `1.10.19`.
+* `2.0.0-beta.5` is the fifth release beta of version `2.0.0`.
+* `2.0.0-beta.5` could be (but is not necessarily) binary incompatible with version `2.0.0`.
+* `2.0.0-RC.1` is binary compatible with release `2.0.0`.
+
+### Tags
+There are two different tags: beta or RC. Beta indicates that the version is directly generated from the master branch of the git repository.
+Beta releases are automatically published whenever we merge a pull request or push a change to the master branch.
+
+When we deem our master status worthy of a release, we publish a release candidate. The release candidate is scheduled to be officially published
+in the official release a while later. There will be no breaking changes between a release candidate and its equivalent official release.
+The only changes will include bug fixes or small updates. No additional features will be included.
 
 ## Looking for support
 
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumper.java b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumper.java
index 01ed67cac5..b6f6ba8e54 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumper.java
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumper.java
@@ -9,17 +9,20 @@ class VersionBumper {
      * Increments 'patch' element of the version of provided version, e.g. 1.0.0 -> 1.0.1
      */
     String incrementVersion(String version) {
-        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)(-(\\w+)){0,1}");
+        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)(-(\\w+)\\.(\\d+))?");
         Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(version);
         boolean m = matcher.matches();
         if (!m) {
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported version: '" + version + "'. Examples of supported versions: 1.0.0, 1.20.123, 1.0.10-beta");
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported version: '" + version + "'. Examples of supported versions: 1.0.0, 1.20.123, 1.0.10-beta.3");
         }
 
         int major = Integer.parseInt(matcher.group(1));
         int minor = Integer.parseInt(matcher.group(2));
         int patch = Integer.parseInt(matcher.group(3));
-        String postfix = matcher.group(4) != null ? matcher.group(4) : "";
-        return "" + major + "." + minor + "." + (patch + 1) + postfix;
+        if (matcher.group(4) != null) {
+            int betaVersion = Integer.parseInt(matcher.group(6));
+            return "" + major + "." + minor + "." + patch + "-" + matcher.group(5) + "." + (betaVersion + 1);
+        }
+        return "" + major + "." + minor + "." + (patch + 1);
     }
 }
diff --git a/version.properties b/version.properties
index 3d70180266..d87a336523 100644
--- a/version.properties
+++ b/version.properties
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-version=2.0.112-beta
+version=2.0.0-beta.112
 mockito.testng.version=1.0

diff --git a/buildSrc/src/test/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumperTest.groovy b/buildSrc/src/test/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumperTest.groovy
index db1c3d6835..b34bcda696 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/test/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumperTest.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/test/groovy/org/mockito/release/version/VersionBumperTest.groovy
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ class VersionBumperTest extends Specification {
         v.incrementVersion("0.0.0") == "0.0.1"
         v.incrementVersion("1.10.15") == "1.10.16"
 
-        v.incrementVersion("1.0.0-beta") == "1.0.1-beta"
-        v.incrementVersion("1.10.15-beta") == "1.10.16-beta"
+        v.incrementVersion("1.0.0-beta.3") == "1.0.0-beta.4"
+        v.incrementVersion("1.10.15-beta.5") == "1.10.15-beta.6"
+        v.incrementVersion("2.0.0-RC.1") == "2.0.0-RC.2"
     }
 
     def "increments only 3 numbered versions"() {
@@ -25,6 +26,6 @@ class VersionBumperTest extends Specification {
         thrown(IllegalArgumentException)
 
         where:
-        unsupported << ["1.0", "2", "1.0.0.0", "1.0.1-beta.2"]
+        unsupported << ["1.0", "2", "1.0.0.0", "1.0.1-beta"]
     }
 }
