I hate mystery titles;
Urgent help needed!
Why doesn't this work?
Help me with this problem.
Check this out!

etc. Personally I think moderators should give harsh warnings for people that make mystery thread titles!

It wastes people's time as you have to click on the thread just to see if it interests you, or if you can help.

It stuffs up the site search engine, as the thread title is useless.

If you have been following a thread it makes it hard to find, or even remember "was that the same thread I was reading yesterday?" until AFTER you actually load the thread and start reading it.

I would like to see new members trained and encouraged to use good descriptive thread titles like:
"Please help using PC power supply to drive large DC motor"

And offenders who post bad thread titles to get red squares and warnings until they learn better.

 

I hate mystery titles;
Personally I think moderators should give harsh warnings for people that make mystery thread titles!

That would be a really good way to scare of any new member. This is a forum for mostly amateurs. And they may not be proper forum trained yet. So should we because of a non descriptive title start to yell at them. Give me a break. What the mods could do was to change the title to be more descriptive if they felt for or it. as gesture of goodwill to the new member

 

I hate mystery titles;
Urgent help needed!
Why doesn't this work?
Help me with this problem.
Check this out!

Agreed except in off-topic. I love when someone post check this out and its like a cat trying to hump a pit bull.

 

These are highschool kids trying to learn. They txt that way. I agree its Annnoooyyyinnggg! But their just kids. Granted some stupid questions can be asked but having worked tech jobs for people who have trouble emailing I can't fault a 16 year old for not understanding in the embedded world you work with bits and its not plug in play, anything you do you need to add hardware then supporting hardware. Many of us have done this long enough its second nature and know what it takes to do something. But if your coming in green, its not an easy hobby to jump into.

I will attest to the fact that it's not easy!

This old man has bunches of experience in other things, but this digital electronic thing is all new to me, and I really appreciate all help you guys give out for free.

Trying to learn all this won't be easy, but that has never stopped me learning new subjects before.

I have given advice in other wood, metal, music, welding, etc. forums; but cannot contribute very much here.

 

I hate mystery titles;
Urgent help needed!
Why doesn't this work?
Help me with this problem.
Check this out!

etc. Personally I think moderators should give harsh warnings for people that make mystery thread titles!

It wastes people's time as you have to click on the thread just to see if it interests you, or if you can help.

It stuffs up the site search engine, as the thread title is useless.

If you have been following a thread it makes it hard to find, or even remember "was that the same thread I was reading yesterday?" until AFTER you actually load the thread and start reading it.

I would like to see new members trained and encouraged to use good descriptive thread titles like:
"Please help using PC power supply to drive large DC motor"

And offenders who post bad thread titles to get red squares and warnings until they learn better.

On some forums this is done via software. Having the server tell you that you are an idiot sort of takes the sting out of it.

 

That would be a really good way to scare of any new member. This is a forum for mostly amateurs. And they may not be proper forum trained yet. So should we because of a non descriptive title start to yell at them. Give me a break. What the mods could do was to change the title to be more descriptive if they felt for or it. as gesture of goodwill to the new member

OK, point taken. Being friendly to newcomers is important.

I think the mods changing the thread title is an excellent idea to fix the problem, apart from it making its own problem of increasing the workload of moderators.

Maybe the forum regulars could offer "friendly advice" to the person to edit their own thread title to something actually useful?

To Spinnaker; your suggestion is a good one too, but I don't know how hard it would be to code an automatic thread title analyser. It sounds like bit of an AI task which would not be trivial to code up?

 

No, there should be no automatic editing of titles and mods should not edit titles.
People have to take ownership for their own actions.
To be told that a title is a poor choice for a title, most definitely.
Anyone who posts a title "Help me" is mindless, inconsiderate and selfish, like someone who drops litter where ever they go without consideration.

 

I agree Mr Chips, When i see "help me" i usualy wont bother to look.

 

To Spinnaker; your suggestion is a good one too, but I don't know how hard it would be to code an automatic thread title analyser. It sounds like bit of an AI task which would not be trivial to code up?

Check out of stack overflow, they do it. Sometimes a real pain in the butt. It would be nice if you could turn the feature off for experienced users. They even analyze your question. Mods will also flag poor questions. Sometimes they go overboard.

 

I actually find some of these titles/threads refreshing, in a sick sort of way.

They often are amusing, so I read them, laugh a little and then ignore them.

The ones that I REALLY find annoying are those from someone who just won't listen. There was recently a thread where no matter how anyone answered, the OP kept repeating, "I just need the code for xxxx".

 

Anyone who posts a title "Help me" is mindless, inconsiderate and selfish, like someone who drops litter where ever they go without consideration.

Frankly I think it shows lack of intelligence too. A well thought out subject line will get the attention of others.

What is really annoying is when people put something like "Free case of beer to anyone that can answer this". and they have no intention of paying off.

Perhaps users that do that should be held to their offer or get banned.