Vague Thread Titles

athtrasna

I follow about 12 forums on here and moderate one. An almost universal problem is people using vague thread titles eg "Please help me", "Advice wanted", "What should I do?", "Big problem" etc.

Surely I'm not alone in finding these frustrating...almost a form of clickbait? I know some forum mods edit titles in accordance with their charters but it's a particular problem in some of the fora I read.

GLaDOS

A lot of those type of titles tend to come from new members in my experience, who aren't used to using a forum like boards. I'll edit titles myself if I think it's necessary, but I don't know if there's much more you can do.

Tom Dunne

If I see a thread with such titles, I just ignore them.

That'll learn 'em.

_Tombstone_

Hover over for screen tip.

End of.

Into The Blue

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Hover over for screen tip.

End of.

What's the touch site version of this?

Tom Dunne

Into The Blue wrote: »

What's the touch site version of this?

Hold your device 2cm from your nose.

MrWalsh

I know one site which just locks such threads with a message saying something like "Thread locked due to vague title. Please use meaningful thread titles".

athtrasna

MrWalsh wrote: »

I know one site which just locks such threads with a message saying something like "Thread locked due to vague title. Please use meaningful thread titles".

Yip, I used to frequent that one in the past! That was a little extreme. In A&P mods tend to edit thread titles where necessary but it doesn't happen in all forums

It does seem to be mostly new users. Just think; some internet users' only experience of internet links are all clickbait. That's a frightening thought.

Though I guess it depends on where the forum is and what the topic is. Take the ones designed specifically for advice, then those kind of thread titles should suffice. However anywhere else - most certainly not.

MrWalsh

athtrasna wrote: »

Yip, I used to frequent that one in the past! That was a little extreme. In A&P mods tend to edit thread titles where necessary but it doesn't happen in all forums

Yeah I did feel that it maybe frightened newbies away. Although perhaps editing the thread title along with a mod note in thread saying something similar "Thread title edited as it was vague, please use meaningful thread titles" might be better?

biko

I would occasionally clarify such a title to make it clearer*

* using my mod powas


And then I ban OP for a week..

Red Alert

Could a more intelligent variant of a swear filter be used: e.g. if certain keywords form the bulk of the title either reject it or ask the user to be more specific?

Eeden

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Hover over for screen tip.

End of.

Yeah, but sometimes you see a thread title, eg "confused", "sensitive issue", etc. and you think you know what it's about because you saw the same thread title last week. Then you click into it and realise it's an entirely different thread.

athtrasna

Eeden wrote: »

Yeah, but sometimes you see a thread title, eg "confused", "sensitive issue", etc. and you think you know what it's about because you saw the same thread title last week. Then you click into it and realise it's an entirely different thread.

Precisely! There were two "sensitive issues" in PI in the past few weeks. One about body hair and the other about skid marks

Eeden

athtrasna wrote: »

Precisely! There were two "sensitive issues" in PI in the past few weeks. One about body hair and the other about skid marks

That's right, It's the opposite of clickbait, in that case. You won't bother reading the thread, as you think you already know what it's about. But you don't, as it turns out.

ibarelycare

This is something that has always bothered me about PI and RI. I wish there was a rule where you had to description in your title of what your post was about, like on, say, reddit/r/relationships. There, the title has to include who's involved, relationship, and a brief synopsis of the issue, e.g

Me (30f) and bf (30m) of 5 months - Not spending enough time together

or

Me and boss - feel I'm being bullied

If people see a thread title on the front page and feel they can relate to it, they're far more likely to click into it and offer advice. As it stands, vague thread titles like "worried", "advice pls", "problem with bf" etc., are incredibly annoying and probably do not encourage many people to click on them.

Buona Fortuna

Yes, but don't posters in PI get a little more latitude.

Its hardly that they're after the attention.

A lot of times they're formulating the ideas as they write. Dreaming up a meaniful headline is probably way down the list.

Neyite

I've put down the vague titles in PI to people writing their posts when they are emotional.

I think modifying their thread title in some cases is a good idea - drop us a report with a suggested title. I'd be happy to make them more specific whenever I can.

Having said that, when a poster is unregistered, this might cause problems because they are not automatically subscribed to the thread. That might mean that when they go back to find their thread they named 'sensitive issue' and its been renamed to something different, they might not find it again. Which kinda defeats the purpose of them posting if they cant find their advice I suppose.

So I'd be in favour of modifying their title but not totally changing it- say: "Sensitive issue" could become: Title Edited: Sensitive Issue -Personal Hygiene. So that they could find their thread again.