Docs versions compression - too many patch builds in the flyout menu

[cmsirbu]

Problem: When browsing for docs versions in the RTD flyout, there are already too many of them and this is only going to get worse as the project is very active and releasing patch versions often (e.g. 1.4.x). Each patch release has its own docs build and I'm not sure how useful it is to have all of them visible (for example docs updates between 1.4.2 and 1.4.3).

Any changes would require adapting the release process and I'm not sure what's the best approach, but I have one starting point for discussion: compress docs versions to 1 single build (e.g. v1.3.x for all 1.3 docs, v1.2.x for all 1.2 docs etc.) for each minor release. Granular patch-release level changes are documented in the release notes already.

A (logistically) simpler approach would be to hide older patch versions as time passes and keep only the latest visible in a particular major.minor train (e.g. keep v1.1.6 for the 1.1.x train). Hiding certain tags from view does not delete them and RTD should keep hosting me AFAIK, you'd need to change your URL manually to visit one such version tag.