One of the new shiny tools moderators get to use now is post annotations.
This results in a small box below the post itself with the notice text. You can currently see it in action here, on a question about 1.9-pre.
Now, it would be unwise to suggest extensive use for a feature that currently can only be manually operated by moderators. For example, I could use it to manually tag questions about shortly lived prereleases of Minecraft (as seen in that example). It could very well be handy in a more general fashion, if shaped like this:
Whenever a major update for a game is released (new Minecraft releases; new World of Warcraft expansion packs; etc.), we mark all the questions for that tag as 'tainted,' which triggers a post annotation such as:
This question was asked before {...}. The answers may reflect the state of things at that time, and thus be no longer useful or relevant now.
Now, it'd be best if this annotation could also be removed automatically, just as it was added as such. Three possible scenarios:
- The question is no longer applicable (say, about a removed item or mechanic), and then it should be closed as "too localized." So, closing a question should remove the notice.
- The answers need updating (say, the mechanic changed), and then:
- New answers are added (so, any new answer should remove the notice?)
- Existing answers are edited (so, any answer edit should remove the notice? should we keep the notice until the top answer gets touched instead?)
- Nothing needs to happen, which means somebody needs to stumble on the question and flag it for moderator attention so that we can remove the post notice (ugh).
Is this a good idea in the first place? When should the notice go away by itself? Can we make this happen?