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Has any thought been given on code that is version-specific or that is getting slightly outdated ?

As an example I'm thinking of the Facebook API where there have been quite a few changes with the introduction of the graph API and where some code isn't always the best example of how to do something.

However, I am against deletion as this information could still be used for reference. I'd be more in favour of the equivalent of the Wayback Machine.

What solutions do you see ? How you sort what's relevant and up-to-date ?

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2 Answers 2

Well, for starters, there are often version specific tags for major languages. As an example, there is , and then there is also: . When there is a question that is specific to that tag you can tag it as both C# and also the version specific tag.

If a question is so outdated that the information is really not particularly relevant at all then it would be appropriate to close the question as Too Localized. This won't delete it, so the information will still be there for reference, but it will help to indicate that the question/answers no longer apply.

Another option is to simply update the question/answers to still be relevant. This might mean adding an additional answer using the (hopefully superior) tools of newer versions of the language, avoiding deprecated functionality, etc. It may also be appropriate to comment on, or edit existing answers to indicate that they only apply to a particular version, and that when using a newer version you should instead use [...].

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Questions that are closed are normally deleted, with the exception of duplicate questions that are not carbon-copies of existing questions. –  kiamlaluno Sep 9 '12 at 3:18

How about an [outdated-version] tag for such obsolete things - it flags the post as not relevant for the current version, and doesn't require future updating once it's applied. People still using the old version of some software or compiler or library can still get old help.

You could add version-specific tags like [facebook-API-3.0], but it would require an awful lot of tagging by people who don't care about the lifetime of their question.

Of course you could ad-hoc edit an out-of-date solution saying so and linking to an up-to-date method, or merely add a comment. People who care about the solutions enough to use would probably read the comments anyway.

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Wayback machine seems a big and complex project, which is why I suggested existing tools. –  AndrewC Sep 9 '12 at 2:16
It would be a meta tag, and meta tags are not used on Stack Exchange, with few exceptions. –  kiamlaluno Sep 9 '12 at 3:16
Of course. My mistake. –  AndrewC Sep 9 '12 at 8:01
Although [outdated-version] is a meta-tag (it cannot stand by itself), it is clear and valuable for all technologies that are mostly used in their most recent version. In that case, this tag is a lot better than having a myriad of version-specific tags. –  oberlies Sep 14 '12 at 12:34

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