Numeric version tags considered ... OK

Question

As a followup to

Version tags considered harmful

TL;DR -- my main point in that post:

The danger of version tags is that they become de-facto requirements -- crutches to avoid thinking about what tags are actually useful on a question. Left unchecked, version tags will poison your tagging system rendering it useless. Don't get me wrong: version tags can exist, but should only be used on posts that are truly specific to a particular version.

With that in mind, I think we have a compromise that is workable.

Instead of

drupal-7

Henceforth, version tags for the core product discussed on a site entirely dedicated to that product will be numbers only, such as

7

This solves a bunch of problems:

• It reduces the redundant repetition of "Drupal" in tags on a website that is already entirely dedicated to Drupal.

• It avoids "autocomplete syndrome" where new users type the first thing that comes to mind in the tags field, Drupal, and are forced into this rigid and dangerous "oh, I must specify a version" mindset from the get-go.

• When users do begin typing a number in the tags field, they will get the version, which is probably what they wanted at that point so we are guessing their intentions better.

• The number tags are clean and simple; when you see 7 on a Drupal site, it is IMO quite obvious what that tag is for.

Bottom line, it allows the version tags to exist -- which as I have always said is fine -- while keeping their use under control, so they can be applied only to questions that are truly version specific as originally intended.

Answer 1

First, thank you for trying to find a compromise. :)

However, I'm not sure if this helps. We do not have to use version tags. I see how they are a mis-use of the tagging system and all the problems that come with it.

But we need a proper, standardized way of attaching the relevant version meta data to questions (and also answers). Because, if we don't have that, 50% (blind guess ;)) of the questions will not contain that information initially, which requires asking back, which costs time, slows the process down and, if the questioner does not come back to specify, the question will very likely not be answered, which will negatively affect our answered ratio, among other things.

Mark Trapp explained our "version thing" very well over here.

In short, we almost always need the version information because of:

• The correct answer could, but must not depend on the version
• The questioner most likely does not know if the answer will be specific to the version he uses or not. But in almost all cases, he is asking for a specific version (the one is is currently using).

Additionally, Even if the answer is for example correct for Drupal 6 and 7, there is no guarantee that it will still be correct for Drupal 8 or 9. I think not knowing for which version an answer is could easily cause more pain than having the same question for two or three different versions. Because most API's (and as explained before and by Mark Trapp, Drupal major versions are more than just an API, they are an ecosystem of "ways of doing things" and contributed modules) are changing and the questions and answers about them are therefore by definition not timeless and true for the remaining human history, as you put it.

You can easily see this problem on SO too, for example with a large amount of old iphone/objective-c questions. I'm currently doing my first large iPhone development project and have a lot of questions. SO is very helpful, because almost all my questions have already been asked by someone else. However, many answers are from 08/09/10 and are using now deprecated or removed API's. Some have the new version edited in, but for many others, that information might only be in a comment (if you're lucky), an answer with 0 upvotes far below or not mentioned at all.

And because in Drupal there are most of the time two more or less equally active versions, it gets even more complex than having an old and and a new version of doing something. And at the same time easier, because there is a limited number of major versions with api changes unlike the iphone SDK, which has 3.1, 4.2, 4.3 and what not.

That said, I'm not sure what would be the best way to deal with that. One idea I had was to add a list of checkboxes to questions and answers so that you can mark which version you are using/interested in (question) or for which version your question is verified to work (can be multiple versions and edited later on).