Vague Subject lines

HarryD

I think ppl should be advised that they must put 'informative' subject lines to their posts.
I hate coming across a post for example in Classifieds:
"Stuff for sale"
or
"For sale"
Or in Personal issues:
"advice"
or
"personal problem"

arrrgggh..
I think if I was the mods I would bin stuff with vague titles.
does this annoy anyone else ?
I know it does on usenet.

Trojan

This thread should be titled something more specific, like "Stop people posting vague subject lines on PI and AH on Tuesdays".

HarryD

but it also happens on Sundays

amp

Clicking on threads is so tiresome. Having identified this as a critical problem, I will now overreact and make sweeping changes to boards. If people argue against this I will propose a "compromise" which will end up being what I wanted anyway.

Oh wait, that's not me...

Trojan

Hmm, maybe we could get people to enter a regular expression that will cover the options:

Stop people posting vague subject lines on PI and AH on [Sun|Tues]days.*

I suggest that we investigate the possibility of lethal electrical surges via the keyboards of these users who persist in this unacceptable behaviour.

kaimera

what's vague to one person mighten be to another.

ecksor

Originally posted by amp
Clicking on threads is so tiresome. Having identified this as a critical problem, I will now overreact and make sweeping changes to boards. If people argue against this I will propose a "compromise" which will end up being what I wanted anyway.

Oh wait, that's not me...

Banned for a week.

azezil

And how about those people who post topics saying "PRON!!!" ... and then there's no porn they should be banned :mad:

Beruthiel

Originally posted by HarryD
Or in Personal issues:
"advice"
or
"personal problem"

arrrgggh..
I think if I was the mods I would bin stuff with vague titles.
does this annoy anyone else ?

no
it does not bother me, it makes no difference either way as I have to read all threads anyway to make sure there's no muppetry

Stark

They bother me big time. I'm not a moderator so I don't want to read every thread. Generally speaking newbies will forget to put a specific title on a thread, it will more likely be a title of "read this" or something stupid like that. I think moderators should automatically rename any thread that has a stupid title.

Beruthiel

Originally posted by k.oriordan
I think moderators should automatically rename any thread that has a stupid title

no thanks
I've enough to be doing

Stark

It takes 2 seconds. I moderate a forum myself that gets over 20 threads a day (less than PI) and I do it as a matter of course.

yellum

Editing other peoples content if it doesn't breach the charter isn't on. Even vague subject lines.

Sangre

Well maybe it should be in the charter.
No read this, advice please, this is cool/great/fun.

If you're reading a topic in any forum, two seconds to change a topic could make it more accessible to those who could help. Someone with relevent information might glance over a thread named 'what now?'.

Simple change some topics to 'advice:breaking up with gf'. If its too troublesome/time consuming ignore it and do it on ones which are easily categorised.

Im only using PI as an example, should apply to all forums. I hate people who use vague topics to try and get more views.

Raphael

I'm not exactly sure what this is about, the subject title was very vague...

Seriously though, a vague subject title isnt a big problem, IMHO, you'll waste what, 2 minutes of your life looking at something that your not overly concerned about

:eek: heaven forbid :eek:

Stark

Yeah maybe in should be in the Charter.

To be honest, I don't see people objecting. The forum where I change the subject lines has some of the bitchiest people you'll ever meet posting to it (you should seriously read some of the things they complain about), and noone's ever complained about the renaming of subjects to make things easier.

sceptre

If someone is vague enough to post a subject line that just says "Helllllllp!" they can't blame anyone but themselves if they don't get any views. It annoys me as well but I generally don't bother opening them.

yellum

Originally posted by k.oriordan
and noone's ever complained about the renaming of subjects to make things easier.

Way Way OT: Yes in fact they have, check the archives.

If you were to change the thread titles it should be by consensus too, because who is to say your interpretation of "easier" is correct. Yes mods are clever enough to make judgement calls, but thread title changes should still be up to the poster if the option is available to them.

EDIT:

Forgot to say that some forums require/suggest thread titles to be structured for easier reading like in Bargains and File Sharing, but I don't know are the policies really strict, its just a guide to get more eyeballs anyway.

HarryD

Originally posted by k.oriordan
It takes 2 seconds

I guess part of the reason it annoys me so much is that I'm running solaris on a sparc, and my workstation hangs for around 10 secs each time I load a page in boards due to the java (?) menu at the top.

Nonetheless I think it's good practice, and if someone is browsing the classifieds looking for something specific, threads like "stuff for sale" just waste time.

Victor

I sometimes change topic titles, especially ones like "Apartment" which could mean quite a lot of things (wanted, available, buying, fitting out, landlord problems, etc.). As I see it, I am only changing the cover, not the content (the original thread title will be in the first post automatically anyway).

I realise people don't always put in relevant titles and at the same time threads should have relevent titles, but mods should not be obliged to pick up after others.

I initially thought the thread here "A building PC [precast] column" should have been on Engineering or DIY.

Syth

Why not just have some text beside the subject field saying something like "please make your subject informative and accurate" That way people would see it when they fill in the subject and maybe think twice.