please reconfigure new post version selections to include "any" or "all" or a functional equivalent

[mrmazda]

HCVV seems discontent with OTHER that I selected for my last OP here on I/B/L. I selected OTHER because it is specific to no version. The issue applies to TW and every recent and currently supported Leap version. For this particular thread, the problem applies to TW, 15.3, 15.2, 15.1 & 15.0 that I know of. I checked no farther back in openSUSE, but it applies to Fedora 33 and Debian 10 as well.

Why isn't such an option available?

[hcvv]

I am sure you want also other people to comment on this except me, but nevertheless I will try to explain my point.

In the past there were many people that started threads and were apparently so nervous about doing this that they forgot to provide even the slightest information about the software they were using. Thus staff decided to add a prefix to the technical help sub-forums to force people to inform others at least about which version of openSUSE they use, in the hope that they then would understand that their audience is not clairvoyant and that adding more information about what they use (desktop type, etc.) might be a good thing.

After deciding to include such a prefix to be chosen from a menu, the big question is: what items to add to the menu. We decided not to make it too long and bewildering (by e.g. going back to SUSE LInux 10 (2007)) or so, but to offer the current supported versions and an extra option as an escape (being on non-supported, or forgotten, or do not know how to find out, or .....). We of course still hope that the fact that the first, and thus probably most important, thing asked for is the openSUSE version, will encourage people that had to use OTHER VERSION, to explain at the top of their post text what they then use that is so deviating from the supported version.

So back to your case.
I still think that by using OTHER VERSION in the first place some people using either 15.2 or TW will not even open your thread because it is not about the version they use and maybe could help with.
People may nevertheless open the thread, were it only because they are curious which old version you are still using. In vain, no explanation at all.
Thus you will loose people to reading your problem from the very beginning.
And that brings us to "HCVV seems discontent with OTHER that I selected ....". It seems that you think that you have to make your thread and title to better answer my whims. This is not the case. I only try to hint you how to make a thread better draw the attention of the people you need. The title, including the prefix, are the advertisement for your thread. When they are bad, people using their spare time to browse through new thread titles will skip them and open threads that are more promising to them. Thus no, you do not need to please me with your thread title.

What could you have done?

• Use either TW or 15.2 from the list, explaining in the first line that it also is applicable for the other (and even for older/newer/non-openSUSE).
• Use Other Version and explain it better in the first line.

I would probably have token the first option.

Adding an ALL option is IMHO not a good idea because there is no strict definition of ALL (all supported, all in the menu list, which may include still older and/or newer like at the moment, all openSUSE versions ever released, all Linux distributions). And also in the future when the threads are used as an archive for many, ALL will not be the same as ALL is in the future, but 15.2 will still be 15.2 in the future.

[mrmazda]

...

Points taken.

Adding an ALL option is IMHO not a good idea because there is no strict definition of ALL (all supported, all in the menu list, which may include still older and/or newer like at the moment, all openSUSE versions ever released, all Linux distributions). And also in the future when the threads are used as an archive for many, ALL will not be the same as ALL is in the future, but 15.2 will still be 15.2 in the future.

This is why this thread title included "functional equivalent" as a hedge. Likely I would have it read "All currently supported versions" or possibly "All currently supported releases", the former of which I think would imply including alphas and betas, while the latter not.

Now I see the mdcheck_start.timer post that lead to this was submitted at 4AM my time, a time when usually I should have been asleep in bed, and my thinker running well under 100%. Typically this happens because after sleeping I will have forgotten details that should be included, or forgotten the subject entirely.

[malcolmlewis]

Hi
In a nutshell, that would be a no from me Aside from Henk's reasons, we aim to keep it short and simple, too many choices creates confusion for users, it also helps to identify what operating system they are actually using when other is selected (if they do).