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Now, there are questions that relate to a specific product X.

The answers to these questions are completely dependent on the version of the product used. A particular function does not exist in version 1, but is there in version 2. Additionally, it is a fact of life that an answer like "upgrade to version 2" is sometimes not proper. Maybe the person asking the question cannot upgrade. Maybe the function does not exist in version 2 either, but the solution is different depending on version.

Additionally, without the version-specific information, a question that was originally correct may degrade into "incorrectness": most current users may use the latest version, and may down-vote answers that were correct in their time frame or even edit a question/answer to correspond to "current correctness."

The proposed specialized version tag would provide versatility for a given question. It implies a tree of potential answers depending on the searched version. It may even constrict the potential answers to only that version.

It will play a small part when a user searches for an appropriate answer or wants to ask a question.

In some cases, normal tags can be used: there are already tags like , and (but where are , or even ?). But what happens when I have question that relates only to ? Assuming that I have the reputation to create a new tag, this tag is only important as 'meta': I want a way to communicate that I have a version constraint. There are no followers of , and it uses up one out of the five tag slots. Personally, I use the RSS tag-tracking feature for ; why should I miss questions? And am I not polluting the tag cloud by inserting an tag?

I am posting this here because it's a system thing, though only a few sites in Stack Exchange would benefit from such a feature — although you could have different versions of the same turkey salad on Seasoned Advice, I suppose.

So, is there any merit in my thinking? I could say some more things but I would also like some feedback. Maybe this discussion already took place in an earlier version of Stack Overflow and was down-voted into oblivion....

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In spite of my linkfest comment on the question itself, this feature request comes down to

this tag is only important as 'meta':

Meta-tags are not allowed, as of August.

Users with version constraints should simply mention them in the bodies of their questions.

EDIT:
After re-reading the question body — thanks @frisco — I see that I misunderstood the OP's request initially, so the first part of my original answer doesn't apply. I still think the second part is valid, though.

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    If you just read the manifest aginst Meta-tags it is clear we are not talking about the same thing. Meta-tags discouraged are meta information about the question, this time we are talking about meta information about the tag, C#-4.0 is crystal clear for everyone and not subjetive, it defines the question even better than C# but lacks the followers C# has. – frisco Feb 8 '11 at 17:33
  • @frisco, okay, I read the "manifesto" quite clearly, but I misunderstood what the OP of this question was suggesting. I'll edit that out. I stand by my last sentence, though; there's no need to pollute the tag system with this information. – Pops Feb 8 '11 at 19:11
  • @frisco that's the basic point. i follow c# in general, why should i have to follow every c# related tag in the universe? – Jaguar Feb 9 '11 at 7:59

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