May make I suggestion on post titles?

One thing that has always annoyed me is post titles that offer little or no clue about the subject matter of the post. Here are some recent examples.


Odds
MP3 Player
Comps
Hey hi
I'm puzzled
Holy craps
Heat
Renovation
Personal review
Three Card Poker


Now, in all fairness, when I was reviewing old threads for this post I found this one: Laughlin by ... you know know. So, call me a hypocrite if you wish, but I admit that was a lousy title, and I'll try to do better.

I also must put in a word of defense for the writers of the "renovation" and "personal review" posts, as those were under the categories of specific casinos. JB and I didn't envision this problem when we brainstormed ideas of the site, but keep in mine that in the "recent posts" lists it isn't obvious what category the post is in. So I'll take half the blame for those.

However, this isn't about finger pointing or embarrassing anybody. I just want to suggest that when you title a post, try to make it descriptive. There are a lot of new threads every day, and most of us don't have time to investigate all of them. If you want people to respond to your post, try to title it to attract readers interested in that topic.

Thanks for listening.

Thank god, I thought I was the only one irritated
by this. I would add, please try and make sure
the words in the thread title are all spelled correctly.
It make the whole site look bad when they aren't.

Good advice. I was at fault for the "Personal Review" topic. Thank you for the words of defense. If you mouse over the link, you can see what hotel it is describing. However, it might be useful to add more descriptors.

In that vein, here is my "Personal Review" of The Fremont.

In addition, please enjoy my review of Boulder Station on the main Wizard of Vegas page.

Add Happy Trails to the list.

Quote: Wixard

I also must put in a word of defense for the writers of the "renovation" and "personal review" posts, as those were under the categories of specific casinos. JB and I didn't envision this problem when we brainstormed ideas of the site, but keep in mine that in the "recent posts" lists it isn't obvious what category the post is in. So I'll take half the blame for those.

Maybe you should include the category in the "recent posts" listing.

If it makes you feel better, this is a problem on all message boards.

Note that most of the message board software now includes a rather cool / unique feature that is designed to relieve this problem. When hovering over a thread link, a bubble pops up with the first couple sentences of the first post. While this is cool, often an author who can't come up with a useful title, will start the thread with some stupid crap before getting to his point, making the pop-up bubble worthless.

I point that out not as advice to add such a feature to this board, but to tell you why you shouldn't bother.

I never gave the titles that much thought. The MP3 Player thread was exactly what I expected which was a good discussion of it and similar products.

The Hey hi thread is ridiculous and makes me wonder if we're being set up for future spam.

Wizard -

Did you make that grammar mistake in your title on purpose?

Quote: FatGeezus

Wizard -

Did you make that grammar mistake in your title on purpose?

I was thinking the same thing...

I was wondering too but, suspecting I have gotten a rep with the Wizard as a smart-ass, didnt want to be the first to ask!

Michael, you might as well claim it was on purpose, it really is quite hilarious!

Quote: odiousgambit

I was wondering too but, suspecting I have gotten a rep with the Wizard as a smart-ass, didnt want to be the first to ask!

Michael, you might as well claim it was on purpose, it really is quite hilarious!

Being dyslexic, I didn't notice.

Titles of threads probably should have the most significant words appearing first since it seems the full title will often be truncated in various displays and all drunk or lazy surfers may miss the meaning of the thread.

Doh! Regarding the title, that was a typo.

Quote: FleaStiff

Titles of threads probably should have the most significant words appearing first since it seems the full title will often be truncated in various displays and all drunk or lazy surfers may miss the meaning of the thread.

Do we actually have any of those people on this board?

Should it be possible for the creator/original poster of a thread to edit the title? That would permit correction of typos or poor wording, but perhaps that is a difficult and unwarranted complication for programming the site software. I suppose there is also the possibility that someone would keep changing the name of a thread and creating confusion among other readers, but we don't have any such annoying sorts posting on this site, do we?

The ability to edit titles sounds like a good idea on the surface, but considering how many people don't bother to edit their posts when there are glaring mistakes, or even to edit / remove content from accidental duplicate posts, creating this capability would probably be a wasted effort.

If I can't tell the subject from the title, I don't click on it. On the one hand, I miss a lot. On the other hand, thank goodness, I miss a lot.

Quote: s2dbaker

Being dyslexic, I didn't notice.

Damn, I didn't even notice either, and I'm not (usually) dyslexic! Gotta read more closely...

"I may on post titles a suggestion make?" ... just some poetry, a word or two out of place

Quote: Boz

Do we actually have any of those people on this board?

I for one, but also those who search through google or happen to "land" on this site for the first time.

Quote: odiousgambit

"I may on post titles a suggestion make?" ... just some poetry, a word or two out of place

Or a pearl from Star Wars', "Yoda".


You can find everyone on the Strip: