Thread Renaming - Your thoughts?
 

We commonly get posts that are titled "Relationship Problems" or "Trouble Abroad" or something general like that. What would you think about moderators changing the titles of these threads to better match the content? They will send a PM to the creator and edit the title so that people will be able to judge the content before clicking on what could turn out to be anything.

I'm thinking of adding this as a policy and I wanted everyone's input.

I'm in favour, but maybe in addition to that we could add some thread title guidelines to the general posting guidelines as well? Unless we already have some, which may be; I haven't read the stickies in a while.

Just thinking if we have a clear ruleset in regards to good and bad thread titles, then nobody has any call to get huffy.

Also, this ties into another suggestion I recall reading regarding exhib. Given that vague thread titles in the exhibition forum can cause real problems for people, perhaps requiring all new threads to have [Ex] or something similar in the title, so that they're easily distinguished in the new posts list.

I dunno. Maybe you should call this thread, "Renaming Threads in Sexuality".

But yeah, it seems totally reasonable. 90% of those titles are way too vague to get a brief summarization of a problem or a requested solution.

Mmmmm.....this could be fun.

Title:Relationship issues Low Female Sex Drive
Title:Help with gf Premature Ejaculation Thread
Title:HELP!!IS SHE PREGNANT!?!!1 Oh Christ, I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

In all seriousness I'd say go for it.

:lol: Well played.

I'd be in favor of this, as long as you empower OP's to edit the displayed thread title...if I recall correctly, changing the title by editing the first post doesn't seem to actually change the thread title for us peons. As long as the original poster has the ability to clarify whatever the mods slap on (or undo it completely), I'm all for it.

Those were my thoughts as well. Get out of my head!

I'd appreciate it. I hate clicking to find out it's just another one of those threads. But having a clear policy regarding thread titles, as Martian suggested, should also go along with that. A proactive policy about it means less work for mods, no?

The current policy seems clear.

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=105692#4

I'm in total favor of this...there have been so many times I've wanted to alter a thread title because it was too vague.

All it takes is a PM; we're happy to do it if it's an improvement.

sometimes i pm the OP and let them know that they will get more response from a better titled thread, this is especially true for those that garner discussion.

but those that we've beaten like a dead horse.... i tend to let those be what they are, a dead horse.

Sometimes I PM people on their birthday with this:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...el/Friendo.jpg
But that's neither here nor there.

If I made a thread with a vague thread title, I'd LIKE to be contacted. Vague thread titles often turn people away from discussion or bring people in who are ready to discuss something else entirely. It's ultimately beneficial to everyone to have accurate thread titles.

Sounds good; perhaps, though, we preserve the original title as well? So, for Ustwo's example, we would have:

Premature Ejaculation Thread (was: Help with gf)

I know that there have been renamed threads in the past on occasion, and I'll sometimes wonder "Why does that thread say that I responded? I don't remember a thread with that title..."

Good idea.

What are we after here? Is this meant to assist the OP or to warn the reader?

If it's to gain more responses for the OP, wouldn't contacting the poster be more effective so that there will be a better understanding for future posts?

If it's for the reader, I don't see the benefit. We can always hit the back button on our browser if the post isn't what we thought.

I pay the price all the time for not always finding the words to express what I mean to say. Some of us are imperfect but it's always fun to learn. :D

The goal is to do 3 things:
Attract people who would ordinarily skip over it
Repel people who would otherwise stumble unwittingly upon it
Format the page for better search engine relevance

:lol: I like that.

But I'll go along for the search engine factor. :thumbsup:

Title:Two Girls and a Cup
New Title:THE EYES CAN NOT UNSEE WHAT IS SEEN, DO NOT CLICK LEST YOUR DREAMS BE HAUNTED FOREVER.

http://www.robmonroe.net/upload/2007/3/16/net02.gif


Seriously though, why aren't users able to edit their own thread titles once the thread is underway? This is the only forum I'm on set up like that, and it's always been slightly confusing to me. :orly:

...Seems like a poor stopgap solution.

Is there some danger to letting people change their own titles that we're trying to avoid?

You can edit titles up to 5 minutes from thread creation. After that, its locked. Why? Think of an artist donating a painting to a gallery... then going back the next day and drawing over it.

Hell yeah! :thumbsup:

Think of not noticing you misspelled or mistyped something in it until 6 minutes later....then you look like a dork every time its responded to and in the new posts list

people pm me to fix those things all the time....

Im sure they do...and it would be nice not to have to do that. I've never understood the ability not to be able to do it either, but then thats MY preference not to have to fix peoples typo's on MY boards. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work for a mod when we could do it ourselves....at least thats my thinking on it

I wouldn't be in favor of renaming threads but 100% support a mod who puts a title on a thread that is posted without one. God I hate when that happens. People take the time to post a column, add a comment and link but don't put in a title. Hopefully it is a fad that goes away before it gets really old.

I don't think its technically possible to submit without a title.

I'm all for this and don't think it just relates to Sexuality.

I've been doing this, but I like to let people figure out that I've done it for themselves. I support it as an official policy even if I have to be nice and let them know I did it.

As an editor, I must support this initiative. It makes sense to match titles to content. I would probably find more of what I like with this kind of thing happening.

That's a pretty good idea. I do think someone should have their original words changed only by themselves so it might be a good option if a pm didn't do the trick in a minimal amout of time - like 24 hours.

Also, moving the thread to the appropriate place (with a pm) is another great option because no one is changing the words of the op, jusy putting them in the right place.

I think it is fine that mods move the threads to the proper places, or comment saying a thread is a journal entry, or edit the titles. There are plenty of times I read a thread title and realize that I know nothing about it. I have even requested that the titles be renamed to something more descriptive.

I mean on the pages that lists all the thread topics. Currently in tilted nonsense 4 of the 8 top threads don't have a visible title.

Huh? I dont see any threads in nonsense with no title...these are the current top 8

The new milestone thread
The 'Artist - Track' Name Game
The Longest Thread Ever
This thread is in the Witness Protection Program
The (Picture) Counting Game
Where am I in.... Canada?
U Damn Write!
Post a Truth

Sounds like a browser problem. They're showing up fine for a lot of people (all).

What operating system, browser, and what version of each are you using?

Internet Explorer and Windows XP.

I will copy tilted nonsense below, but incase it comes up differently for you, I will post what I see.


Sticky: The new milestone thread ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... Last Page)
( 1 2 3 4 5)
( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... Last Page)
The 'Artist - Track' Name Game ( 1 2 3 4 5 6)
( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... Last Page)
( 1 2)
The Longest Thread Ever! ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... Last Page)


http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Maybe it's just me:paranoid:

Sold!

I'm all for it!

I think it's a pretty good idea.

I'm all for it