There is already a standardized way to do this via version numbers, which is used in modern software development projects:
https://semver.org/#spec-item-9
I don't see this as an effective way to address this specific problem of allowing Boards Manager to be used by platform maintainers for distributing pre-release versions without the presence of those releases harming the user experience for regular users.
However, I do think it could be useful for other use cases:
- The user knows the release is "bad" (e.g., significant regression, incompatibility with their code)
- The user is intentionally not updating that specific platform, but doesn't want to disable update notifications universally.
Arduino IDE already has this capability for the IDE updates, but not for platform or library updates.
There is an existing request for such a capability here:
I think the "Install Manually" button provides this capability effectively already. When you click that button, you get a list of the platforms that are updatable and the version that would be updated to and you can pick the specific platforms you want to update.
It seems to me that this would be obviated by your other proposal to add a "Skip Version" capability for the platform/library update notifications.
If I clicked the "Later" button because I don't want the update at all, then I would prefer to never get another for it.
If I clicked the "Later" button because I didn't have time at that moment to perform the update, but I do plan to do it, then I would be happy to get another notification for the update the next time I start the IDE.
So I don't see a use case where reducing the notification frequency is beneficial in addition to a "skip version" capability. Do you see one?
As for reducing the notification frequency as an alternative to the "skip version" capability, I think it is only a minor mitigation, but also do think it would be reasonable to tie it to the current 4 hour minimum interval of the package index downloads.