Clean up titles in News subforum?

[K.P.]

Is it possible for mods to clean up titles of posts in the news forum? For example,
Why you don't put your PV.... and A pretty good article in a local paper are terribly vague. The first lead to at least one duplicate (with a much better title that would be less encouraging to duplicates). The second is so forgettable that I might (as I have done in the past) click it several times over a week or more (if it stays on the front page), forgetting I've already seen it.

Is it possible for mods to be pro-active about cleaning up these vague, forgettable, hey-look-in-here-for-a-surprise titles in News-forum posts? Or to do so if someone like me flags them with a note like 'needs a more descriptive title'?

And if that's not possible from a software side, is there a work-around?

Thanks! I'm assuming I'm not the only person who hits the news subforums daily and the rest of the forum rarely.

If it can be done but no one actually wants to do it, I'm happy to take on limited mod-duty for this.

[smokum]

I'm sure the mods/admin don't really have the time (or desire) to filter through.... however, perhaps a better approach (since you are sifting through regularly), would be to 'report' the post of concern and suggest a renaming with a basis for the request ?

[K.P.]

I'm sure the mods/admin don't really have the time (or desire) to filter through.... however, perhaps a better approach (since you are sifting through regularly), would be to 'report' the post of concern and suggest a renaming with a basis for the request ?

Yes, that's what I'm inclined to do, if someone from team-mod says 'sure, flag away and suggest better titles, we'll see what we can do.'

However, not if someone from team-mod replies and says 'we only close and move threads, we don't/can't edit posts/titles for reasons XYZ'----which is the case on at least one forum I visit regularly. I'd rather not go flagging and suggesting better titles if they can't be changed.

[smokum]

yes.... maybe a lil wait for the admin/staff to respond to your inquiry so you don't waste either yours nor their time is in order. I'm pretty sure it won't be too long for that

[oldsoldier]

You can always report the post and request that the title be changed. However it is just better to put a proper title in a thread to begin with.

Usually we will consider a title change if the OP makes the rquest or if a senior staff member feels it is necessary. Changing titles tends to mess with search results and create redirects ( more server load) so it is something we try not to do on important threads.

[K.P.]

You can always report the post and request that the title be changed. However it is just better to put a proper title in a thread to begin with.

Alas, people will never learn. Those sort of mystery meat, you-have-to-click-to-find-out-the-real-topic (coupled with titles so vague you don't remember if you read them already) posts are a pet peeve of mine.

Usually we will consider a title change if the OP makes the rquest or if a senior staff member feels it is necessary. Changing titles tends to mess with search results and create redirects ( more server load) so it is something we try not to do on important threads.

I figured there might be an infrastructure problem with doing this routinely. Thanks for clearing that up!

[rolygate]

I hate irrelevant thread titles and often just change them myself. Sometimes when I realise I just posted one myself :-)

It's better to do it very early on in the thread's life. There are less implications then. If members want to report poorly-titled threads, and suggest a better title - especially when the thread is young - you have my vote. I'll attempt to persuade the crew it's a good idea...

As an even better pointer to how bad this problem can be, we had over 30,000 duplicate thread titles, where by chance someone titled post #1 the same as a previous thread, or used something that is obviously going to be a repeat - and frequently unhelpful as well: like "Help please". That causes numerous problems and apparently had never been addressed by vBulletin or vbSEO, for some reason, so our coder developed a new plugin that numerically increments duplicate thread titles. This is why you'll occasionally see something like: 'Battery problem t48'. The software adds t (for title) and a number, so you can see there were 47 previous occurrences of that exact title; and now, that the title is no longer a duplicate.

Thread titles are a problem. An insoluble one no doubt, like 'please read the stickies'. Stickies are an interesting example of invisible text - you could put your secret bank account number in there for safekeeping, it would be perfectly secure.

[K.P.]

I hate irrelevant thread titles...If members want to report poorly-titled threads, and suggest a better title - especially when the thread is young - you have my vote. I'll attempt to persuade the crew it's a good idea...

Oh, ok. I'll start doing that.