Can version tags be removed if a question can be modified to be general to all versions?

Question

The question Are there any good programs to learn Dvorak? has a 10.04 tag, but this is a general question that really shouldn't be specific to a particular version of Ubuntu. Can questions like this be edited to make them more general, and the tag removed? If so, is there any protocol to taking such an action?

Answer 1

Yes, and I believe version tags should be avoided as much as possible anyways. They make the question have a limited value.

I would even go as far as believing that removing versions from title and body is valid if those have nothing to do with the problem.

Only if it is apparent that the question is off topic (due to the version for instance) leave it there.

We are here to answer questions. If fixing up a question makes for a better answer all the better.

Answer 2

Certainly. Many canonical posts started off with a version tag and grew more general. Personally, I remove those tags if the question's answers now cover multiple versions of Ubuntu, and people have shown an inclination to add answers for versions yet-to-be-covered. When I do that, I also remove the version numbers mentioned in the body or title of the question.

I suggest the following checklist:

• Do the answers cover multiple Ubuntu versions?
• Have answers been added to cover versions released after the question was asked?
• Does the question itself cover multiple versions?

If any of those is true, nuke the tags.

The tags only make sense when the a solution must work for that tag - and if that's been handled, there's not much use for it.