An appeal for more informative thread titles

[Mitchell Andrus]

There's smoke pouring out of your planer:

This is a bad thread title: "What do you think....?"

This is a good thread title: "Help with smoke coming from my planer"

I try to stay up on the content of some threads where I might be of service or that might be interesting to follow. But every now and then I need to click into an ambiguous title like "Suggestions needed" just because I don't remember what the main point was - sometimes days later.

Just a small suggestion to help keep the bandwidth down and to attract more people who can tell you which fire extinguisher to use. Quickly.

All good literature starts with a good first sentence, except the novel "Paul Clifford" of course. Look it up.
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[Chris Nolin]

I've thought the exact same thing, Mitchell. Thanks for verbalizing it! Oh, and isn't that Snoopy's favorite first line???

[Adam Strong]

I will join in the plea for your same reasons... I have noticed there seems to be a lot of this vague subjected threads.

[Mitchell Andrus]

I've thought the exact same thing, Mitchell. Thanks for verbalizing it! Oh, and isn't that Snoopy's favorite first line???

You get the grand prize.

Actually:

The first 'dark and stormy night' was conjured up by the English Victorian novelist, playwright and politician who rejoiced in the name of Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton. It has become synonymous with the Victorian melodramatic style, of which Bulwer-Lytton's many works provide numerous examples. This style has long been out of fashion and considered kitsch and risible. So much so that, since 1982, an annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been sponsored by the English Department of San José State University, California. Contestants are required "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels". Bulwer-Lytton's own florid pre-contest attempt, in his novel Paul Clifford, 1830, began:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents - except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

The phrase has been used frequently as a comic device by Charles M. Schulz in the popular comic strip Peanuts. The aspiring author Snoopy is often portrayed typing 'a dark and stormy night'.


Bulwer-Lytton's literary efforts weren't entirely in vain. His work was highly popular during his lifetime and he has left us more than 'a dark and stormy night'. For instance, " the great unwashed" and "the pen is mightier than the sword" are also his gifts.

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[Dave Gaul]

It makes sense to me that if the title is more informative, more people will look at the thread => more possible replies!

This could also help reduce the number of "topic-duplicated" threads...

[Brian Effinger]

I couldn't agree more, Mitchell.

[Richard Dragin]

You get the grand prize.

Actually:

The first 'dark and stormy night' was conjured up by the English Victorian novelist, playwright and politician who rejoiced in the name of Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton. It has become synonymous with the Victorian melodramatic style, of which Bulwer-Lytton's many works provide numerous examples. This style has long been out of fashion and considered kitsch and risible. So much so that, since 1982, an annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been sponsored by the English Department of San José State University, California. Contestants are required "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels". Bulwer-Lytton's own florid pre-contest attempt, in his novel Paul Clifford, 1830, began:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents - except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

The phrase has been used frequently as a comic device by Charles M. Schulz in the popular comic strip Peanuts. The aspiring author Snoopy is often portrayed typing 'a dark and stormy night'.


Bulwer-Lytton's literary efforts weren't entirely in vain. His work was highly popular during his lifetime and he has left us more than 'a dark and stormy night'. For instance, " the great unwashed" and "the pen is mightier than the sword" are also his gifts.

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Maybe you need to start a thread about staying on topic. I do agree with the title of this thread.

[Matt Stiegler]

And informative titles make it much, much easier to find what you're looking for when searching old threads.

[Myk Rian]

How about the current thread;
"Does anyone see a problem?"

A problem with what?

[Robert Reece]

I agree to.

The only way though that we are going to make this work is if we get the moderators to comment in the thread that the title is not expressive enough. We could also police this to some extent by commenting ourselves and making suggestions for new titles, to which the original poster could edit their post (hopefully they can edit a title). If the community stayed on top of the offenders, we would get it under control. But it would be a continual battle as new people come on and would need to learn that we hate unexpressive subject lines.

I remember a while back somebody made a plea to not just post a machine model number like Grizzly G0X550999!#4...a# because we all haven't memorized all the manufacturer catalogs. But still we have people posting these numbers without telling us what the thing actually is.

[Mr. Jeff Smith]

+1

I've got to the point where I just ignore threads without descriptive titles. So, more evidence for people looking for feedback to provide some detail in the title.

[Cliff Holmes]

From what I see, the vast, vast majority of posts have perfectly informative titles. Things must be pretty darn nice around here if that's the biggest concern we have.

[Josh Reet]

Good luck on getting this to change. Bad thread titles is an issue that has been around since before the invention of forum software. People were using listservs and sending out subjects like "HELP!" or "Which one?" in 1994.

You can't push a string.

[Brian Tymchak]

Good luck on getting this to change.....

I vote to make this thread a sticky. The thread title says it all.

How does one get a thread to "stick"?

Brian

[Mitchell Andrus]

Maybe you need to start a thread about staying on topic. I do agree with the title of this thread.

I would but I'd just drag it off topic.... What were we discussing again?

Ah, yes. Victoria era literature.
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