Could someone explain why v3.9.0 follows v4.1.1? I thought version numbers went up, not down. Just asking.
it’s for the version that runs on github.
Just an update for those using the 3.x branch and didn’t find yet stable plugins for the newer 4.x
The mainstream Jekyll is v4.1.1 and will continue in the 4.x series.
v3.9.0 was released as a special case to allow users on the v3.x series (primarily since GitHub Pages can’t upgrade to v4 right away and risk breaking builds for its users) to use kramdown v2 (opt-in) and beyond.
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Thanks for this explanation! I hope there’s a plan for these two forks to converge in a timely manner. 
The 3.x series is under security maintenance. Only security fixes would be backported to the 3.x series. v3.9.0 is a special release to allow users opt-in to kramdown-2.3.0 which contains a security fix. (v3.8.x only allows use of kramdown-1.17)
Until the core team encounters a similar need for a special release, the 3.x series for Jekyll can be considered to have been retired.
The changes included in v3.9.0 had already been released as part of v4.0 and v4.1.
So, if one is using v4.1.x, there’s absolutely no need to install v3.9.0.