If you have a question, don't create a POST, ASK a question (try the blue "Ask a Question" button at the top).
I have no idea where you're being limited in your terms.  Is it a specific field, like Topics?  There are only so many topics, and depending on your question some will be suggested.

Hi,

What terms are being blocked?

Alan.

Thanks for the replies.

First, EXCUSE ME! When I said "post a question," I did  not realize I had to march in lock-step and say "ASK a question," which is what prompted me to get your feedback.

As for terms being "blocked, " let me be very specific about that. When I am asked to put in specific terms (which I assume is to make it easy for experts to spot questions in areas in which they are indeed experts), I entered "cron job." But since that expression wasn't in the lexicon of EE's listings, I couldn't post the question.

Remember how easy it used to be before the change in site layout? ANY term would work and usually returned plenty of potential answers. Why did something like that get so radically changed and in so doing cause great grief to regular users of EE? Or am I missing a simple way to do essentially the same thing?

Hi RadioGeorge,

Good question.

There are official topics here at EE and proposed topics.  I went ahead and added 'cron job' as a proposed topic for you.  You should now be able to use that proposed topic when asking a question.

However, please note that a proposed topic cannot be assigned to a question on its own because it is not an official topic.  Official topics exist because this is how experts in those areas are alerted to your question.  So, how are you going to get your question submit on the site if your main part of your question is related to a 'cron job'?

I recommend these official topics as options to assign to your question in addition to your 'cron job' proposed topic.  I'm not saying use all of these, but find one that is closely related to the environment you're working in and how you're executing that cron job.

Scripting Languages
Apache Web Server
Linux DIstributions
Unix OS
Shell Scripting
Linux OS Dev
Linux
MySQL Server
PHP

I've attached a screen shot of how it should look when you add cron job to a question.

After you have added at least one official topic then you will be able to submit your question to the experts.

Let me know how that goes and if you have questions about any other features or products of the site.

Regards,

e.g.

Basically, you should be able to make any proposed topic you like if there isn't an official topic yet.  Just keep in mind that at least one official topic needs to accompany your question to ensure experts are alerted to your question.

Since there is a difference between posts and questions, it's an important distinction.  

I've asked very few questions here, but as I recall there didn't use to be any suggestions, you had to manually select which topics you wished to post your question in.  Now you get suggestions, and even have the ability to suggest new topics (though this latter may be of dubious value).  I would think a question regarding "cron job" would fall within topics like Linux or Shell Scripting.  In your case, since the suggestions don't return anything, just click the down arrow in the topics field (delete anything you typed in the field first that isn't a selected topic) to see a list of recommended topics.  I do think there should be a way to just browse a list of all topics so that you can see if there's any better topics than what happens to be recommended.

One thing that may be hindering your progress is that there is a "post" and there is an "ask" feature on the site. The former is restricted to existing topics.

You can access the ask tool, directly, here:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/askQuestion.jsp

It will allow you to ask questions in topics that do not exist already.

This isn't directed at any non-admins, but can I just say how happy I am that someone decided to edit one of my posts for me?  Lame.

Hi RadioGeorge, I see you have been around here long enough to have gone through a number of changes to EE. This whole post/ask thing is just one of them and I've seen a number of people get it mixed up.
Just please don't forget that the Experts are volunteers and trying to help.

Just post under Linux or your Distro.