Titles

[Audiomaker]

Yes Titles.

What is this thread about?

It could be about pink slips...

Maybe it's about gender... like Mr. and Mrs.

Perhaps it's about royalty... Sir.. King...Lord...

Could be about your job... Owner, Master ****, Chief...

You are reading this though, out of curiosity as you really didn't know.


No, what this thread is about are how to name your topics.

Remember that one of the best things about a message board such as this is the ability to search what has already been discussed.

This is one area where the membership of a board really gives back to the board owner and to the community by making a particular board easier to find pertinent information on.

I'd like to give an example. It is one of countless examples, but it's the one I'm on today, and the one that is inspiring to make this (ill-titled) post.

Do a quick search on this board for "undertail".... wow...ok....

Now do an advanced search for "undertail" selecting a title-only filter... 20 pages (at the time of this writing).

Now pretend that you are looking for an undertail installation walkthrough with photos and tell me how quickly you can find it?

As we can see... 200 posts titled simply "undertail" doesn't really help. Which one might be the one?

Here are a few examples of proper thread titles:

"UFO undertail installation walkthrough with pic's"

" Where do I get replacement plastic clips for my undertail?"

"What is the best undertail for a 2002 Busa?"

"Is an ABS undertail better than a fiberglass undertail?"

...etc...etc.

It really helps to have part of your question that is going to be answered in the title itself, not just to post your question in the body and put a vague title as an afterthought.

Consider the search engine of the board when making your title... what generation Busa are we talking about? Is the searcher going to know you used slang? Is the searcher going to type abbreviations? Is that one word or two (under tail vs undertail). What makes your title stand out vs. all the other threads that have already been created about your topic?

Consider if valuable information freely given to you by other board members will be forever hidden in threads titled:

"Oh No!"

"What is this?"

"I had another problem..."

"undertail"
"undertail"
"undertail"
"undertail"

Consider that each topic is not only an opportunity for you to get your question answered, but to get the same question answered for countless searchers that will follow you and not want to clutter the board with countless threads about the same thing. A good title is sharing the information given to you with others as it was shared with you. I bad title is rather selfish.


Thanks for Listening!

Sean

 

[cheferman65]

:kissass:

 

[kromdom]

Sean,
Great idea. Sadly, there are many noobs who find this site while in panic search mode and more often than not, do not know/do not care about giving back. They come here with a problem, demand an answer QUICK, TAKE and leave (many do not even say THANKS).

 

[IG.]

Agreeing that a post title should be informative, descriptive, and specific

 

[Audiomaker]

Sean,
Great idea. Sadly, there are many noobs who find this site while in panic search mode and more often than not, do not know/do not care about giving back. They come here with a problem, demand an answer QUICK, TAKE and leave (many do not even say THANKS).

I agree.

But some also stick around and the bad habit persists.

Honestly, nobody wants to be rude, but maybe it should be an exercise on this board (and others) to let people know that their title could be more descriptive.

I mean, other things are OK like :

"This thread is worthless without pic's"

"Why don't you include what model of Hayabusa you are talking about?"

"Welcome to the forum..."

...etc...

I don't think it would be out of line to say "Welcome to the .org and if possible, try to make your titles more specific please".

Over the long run it might help because people would not see as many non-descript titles and therefore would feel obligated to post something better in order to "fit in".

If the topic list is chock full of titles like "Busa Question" and "How do I do this?", then I think it's more likely others will follow that unfortunate lead.

If there's a bunch of threads that contain "Could you please be more informative with your titles?", I think it would stick.... at least to a percentage.

Anyway, not meaning to rant, only to help.

Sean

 

[Busa1166]

I do see your point AudioMaker, If you had gone to our forums, Mod section and clicked on appearances you will see that some "how to mods" have been pinned. In fact in each section in their and other places have been pinned for our visitors and members alike. That tail section mod you came searching for was at the top of the list. A lot of effort is put into this forum by it's owner and volunteer moderators, with as some one else pointed out little reward or thanks from people who benefit from the vast knowledge here.

Some people log into here with a problem and do not even bother to scroll down the sub categories and open it. Instead they click the search and type a couple of words and expect the answer to their problem or question to be thread 1 or 2 when there may be hundreds or thousands of similar threads since once the mod has been done we like to see a that person return as a member and share his pics of his mod. Thus you will see many threads come up when something is typed. This is just my opinion not those of the forum owner/ mods or other members who use this forum.

to the org and thanks for the tip

 

[Audiomaker]

I do see your point AudioMaker, If you had gone to our forums, Mod section and clicked on appearances you will see that some "how to mods" have been pinned. In fact in each section in their and other places have been pinned for our visitors and members alike. That tail section mod you came searching for was at the top of the list. A lot of effort is put into this forum by it's owner and volunteer moderators, with as some one else pointed out little reward or thanks from people who benefit from the vast knowledge here.

Some people log into here with a problem and do not even bother to scroll down the sub categories and open it. Instead they click the search and type a couple of words and expect the answer to their problem or question to be thread 1 or 2 when there may be hundreds or thousands of similar threads since once the mod has been done we like to see a that person return as a member and share his pics of his mod. Thus you will see many threads come up when something is typed. This is just my opinion not those of the forum owner/ mods or other members who use this forum.

to the org and thanks for the tip

Oh trust me, I get it. I was a moderator on the largest assault rifle forum on the net for over a decade.

The "General" forum always gets overused and the sub forums get ignored. Information getting spread out over subforums is why the search engine is so important.

Many boards do their best to organize things by adding more and more forums, but eventually so much is covered that one might not even need a "General" forum at all.

But...you get in to problems like "What the best Cush drive source?".

Well, does that belong in "Gen II" discussions if you have a GenII? What if it's a GenII turbo...does it go in the turbo forum? Or does it go in the maintenance or performance mod's forum?
Ahhhh....screw it, I'll just put it in "General". After some time, people get used to posting or answering almost anything in the General forums.

The only light at the end of that tunnel is the search engine, and that search engine only works properly if people think about it while they are posting.

Because the search engine runs off keywords, full body searches (as in text body) aren't much good. A 3 page thread will contain half the words in the dictionary. I don' t know, but it might even include people's signatures (imagine searching for "Power Commander" and having every thread with someone with that in their signature come up).

That's why title searches are so important.

Anyway, just trying to give positive input to the board.

Sean

 

[Audiomaker]

Bump (couldn't hurt)

 

[sixpack577]

I can search for posts made here a few years ago, and search them by exact name, yet they still don't show up.
It seems to be information overload, regardless of how vague or detailed the title.

 

[dadofthree]

Great post. I do a lot of searches and get my butt cut. It's probably written somewhere, but there has to be wilcards that allow you to search more than one word. Also it would be helpful if important threads with vids and pics were tagged.

 

[Audiomaker]

Great post. I do a lot of searches and get my butt cut. It's probably written somewhere, but there has to be wilcards that allow you to search more than one word. Also it would be helpful if important threads with vids and pics were tagged.

Yeah, I don't know which flavor of search engine this is. Some do allow wild cards as a site like ebay does" Hayabusa Swingarm -(spool, sticker, chrome, new)". Some don't. Some do and don't announce the wild cards. It is a useful feature when available.

I can also see being able to tag a post being helpful, but this might be beyond the capability of the software that hosts the board. There is a rating system, but I don't think most people actually use it. Even if you were searching by rating, that might give you the threads that have the best jokes in them and not the boring ol' thread pitch of the nut you really need to buy...etc.

In the end, I think it is really hard to substitute for thoughtful descriptive titles, and ultimately that burden lays on the folks who post.

Not much I personally can do about it except try to enhance my own titles and maybe bump this thread once in awhile in the hopes that someone who hasn't seen it...will.

I guess it's sort of my own personal little crusade since my internet board experience is extensive compared to my Hayabusa experience so I guess that's what I have to offer.

Anyway, I'll bump this if I see the first page of "General" mired in vagueness.

All the Best
Sean