Hello,
following discussion on mailing lists and at Fosdem over the last weekend, I am considering to create the git branch 5.0 later this week, on Thursday, Feb 9, 2017. Afterwards, the master branch can take commits with new features. The branch 5.0 will be tested for 1-2 more weeks and if all is fine, the v5.0.0 can be released.
Should anyone have other suggestions, jump into discussion.
Cheers, Daniel