Thread: Thoughtfull titles

Assuming most, if not all, members have basic understanding of SEO; I am a bit surprised that a a lot of members doesn't give the title of thread starters a bit more thought.

A well though out title would benefit the forum, and in the long run it will benefit all of you having links in your signature.

If you want help to choose between two items; spell them out in the title.
If you want help with some programming; at least write a question that is within the area you want help.

A really good question is often better than an ill-thought opinion (like this one).

That may be, but sometimes English isn't one's strong point and using a translator often ends up with the wrong sentence structure, grammatical errors, or things just sounds out of place. True, it doesn't always work that way, but more often than not, this is one example why titles might not be the best they can be. I am English, and sometimes what I'm trying to say comes out the wrong way and ends up leaving me with long explanations.

I just think there is more to it than just getting the title right or not, and more than likely has nothing to do with SEO skill. If someone has a problem, they aren't creating a thread to see how many responses they can get, its to get help with a problem, first and foremost, and sometimes language just seems to fail when the problem is complex, or beyond your own language barriers and you cannot explain properly.

I totally agree on the language skills.
My first language is not english.

It is not grammar, or even badly choosen words, I find annoying.

What I mean is that it is way easier to get an answer if your actual question is in the title and if you have some information you think is important enough to share, why not give a decent hint in the title?

I made the SEO connection since I think most people here are obsessive about titles in all other writing they do.

That much I can understand. But sometimes the problem can be really complex for a person and they genuinely struggle to find a way to explain it. True, a simple choice between two is conveyed better if the choice is added to the title itself, but few do that. They prefer to explain the decision between the two choices in their post rather than their title. It's just a preference for some I guess.

I suspect that thread titles are often an afterthought. I know I have opened threads and hit the post button and then the forum software complains because there is no title.

I have as well. lol Depending on the size of the post, I sometimes can't always think of a catchy title at all.

I just found this thread by Phoenyx

You were already on this train

That's about blogs and articles though. Although I can see where using forum posts accordingly would seem more viable. More so if you were actually promoting a service or product. That would lean more towards the formality of actually promoting and doing business with someone else. Asking for help (well the way I see it anyway), is not about promoting, and it certainly isn't about getting someone to buy a product. It's about asking for help about a specific problem/s or a product comparison to help you make a decision on something you want to buy. I did generalize a lot between posts, articles and even emails came under fire, but I don't really think that a forum post needs to have the same criteria. Sure, we have a marketing section, and there you will see a variety of different titles that can definitely grab the curiosity to some extent, but the rest of the forum is more relaxed and focused on members rather than their businesses. To give credit were credit is due though, if you have a serious problem, like with a computer problem, it helps to know what the problem is before getting to the nitty gritty of the actual forum thread. it helps give a tech a bit of an idea what they're facing before the thread is opened. But, that's IT, and its more or less an entirely different ball game. There are clear cut prerequisites you need before you can expect a tech to be able to help you.

Would it be better if people used more descriptive or catchy titles to their threads? maybe. Is it a necessity? Not really. Unless you need to make money from the marketplace, or your computer is hanging by its last RAM module, I think its entirely up to you how you create a thread title.