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Short Or Obscure Subject Titles...Why Use Them?


Real Steel

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This is not a rant.  A rant is when I throw things, and that would break my computer.  So this is just a friendly 'venting'.

 

How many times have you clicked on a very short or obscure title only to find it's nothing you wish to look at?   Why are so many subject titles short or obscure?  This forum is free after all; a few more words would cost nothing.  Yet titles such as:  "Question", "Ford", "Value", "1930" are all too common on forums.

 

Maybe some folks are deliberate in their obscurity so that more people will click on the post?  I don't know, that seems like faulty thinking and a massive waste of peoples time. 

 

To make things worse, short and obscure titles make it difficult to do a search here.  Effectively, when a search can't be done, the knowledge is lost...which is a further waste of peoples time.

 

I'm now combating this by no longer clicking on short or obscure titles. 

There, that's better, I feel vented now :)

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Real Steel said:

This is not a rant.  A rant is when I throw things, and that would break my computer.  So this is just a friendly 'venting'.

 

How many times have you clicked on a very short or obscure title only to find it's nothing you wish to look at?   Why are so many subject titles short or obscure?  This forum is free after all; a few more words would cost nothing.  Yet titles such as:  "Question", "Ford", "Value", "1930" are all too common on forums.

 

Maybe some folks are deliberate in their obscurity so that more people will click on the post?  I don't know, that seems like faulty thinking and a massive waste of peoples time. 

 

To make things worse, short and obscure titles make it difficult to do a search here.  Effectively, when a search can't be done, the knowledge is lost...which is a further waste of peoples time.

 

I'm now combating this by no longer clicking on short or obscure titles. 

There, that's better, I feel vented now :)

 

 

Yes, it is VERY annoying to have to click on a post/thread when only the user's avatar name or vague subject is presented. Please say what you want to say in the title in order to make it easier to use this forum.

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Or when you put a subject (with complete info in heading) and a second Post pops up 15 minutes later regarding the same subject. Put your information in the thread that is already going so it’s easier for everyone. 

You know you do feel better after getting it out sometimes, thanks. 

Dave S 

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I agree with alsancle. I remember title paralysis. You have a message more or less made up in your head, but the first thing you see is "title" and paralysis follows, so you just blurt something out and move on.

 

The hover view can be quicker than clicking on it. It is certainly quicker to move on because you don't have to come back. Just move the cursor and it is gone.

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Well I’m an older guy if you consider 72 older. I like to say it’s 36 with twice the experience. Besides experience and wisdom trumps youth and vitality every time. I understand the internet. I understand computers as a service bureau owner from main frames to server systems. So watch what you say sonny or I’ll beat you with my cane!  Oh I guess I’m showing my age. Sorry. 

Dave S 

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2 minutes ago, SC38DLS said:

 I understand computers as a service bureau owner from main frames to server systems. So watch what you say sonny or I’ll beat you with my cane!

 

Apology given .  I think it was unfair to generalize with "older gents",  although that probably describes 80% of our demographic here.   I think I should have just said "people unfamiliar with forums".

 

 

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No problem besides I’m old enough to have already forgotten what you said! 

The damn grey hair keeps pulling the memory cells out of my brain. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

Dave S 

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Maybe some people are stupid and unable to put down their thoughts in written form. With the state of the education system it is possible to graduate high school and be practically illiterate.

 

We often get questions that are so short and badly put they are almost impossible to answer. Then occasionally there is one that, who the hell knows what he is talking about.

 

Those seem to be the messages that get obscure one word titles.

 

By the way this board has a very high standard of literacy. You should see some of the ones frequented by the younger crowd. At times you can't tell them from chimps or inmates of a home for the feeble minded.

Edited by Rusty_OToole (see edit history)
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When using a full keyboard it’s easy to type out information.  Those folks who are proficient at typing messages with their thumbs on smartphone micro keyboards amaze me.  If you are not proficient with that method it might be why we see short title lines for some questions.  At least I like to hope it’s why before I jump on them for poor forum methods.  My posts are all from a tablet as my thumbs are to dumb to do it from a phone.

Terry

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Terry,  what you are saying it is too much work for someone to post a descriptive title, thus causing lots of other people to waste their time.

 

Since are on a bit of a roll here,  my personal favorite is title:   "1929 Duesenberg"   body:  "need Lockheed cotter pin for right rear brake".

 

Generic and potentially interesting subject followed by the huge let down of boring and very specific body.

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Short Or Obscure Subject Titles... is interesting as is the opposite for example "rear brake light", "front windshield" and "park light lens cover".

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1 hour ago, SC38DLS said:

No problem besides I’m old enough to have already forgotten what you said! 

The damn grey hair keeps pulling the memory cells out of my brain. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

Dave S 

 

 

Hey, at least you still have hair!  ?

 

I'm also an "older gent" who is pretty computer/internet savvy.  I always try to make my posts, including titles, clear and descriptive - not always successfully but I try.

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On 5/28/2018 at 4:14 PM, alsancle said:

For the most part I attribute it to older gents not understanding the internet or forums in particular.   I skip a lot of threads because of that.

 

Never ascribe to malice what you can attribute to incompetence.

As one who has attempted search function on this website, I can tell you that I am much more careful about titles.  Even then, the search function on this forum leaves a bunch to be desired.

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On 5/28/2018 at 5:05 PM, SC38DLS said:

The damn grey hair keeps pulling the memory cells out of my brain.

 

It doesn't look like smoke when that happens does it?

 

I would avoid this place.

image.png.587876c734975196ea5a98a04d100849.png

 

The salon of darkness.

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 I agree with Rusty _OTool, 

"By the way this board has a very high standard of literacy"

 I enjoy this site because the posts are written very well, as compared with other sites that I go to.

 When I post, I always read a second, or third time, to be sure my message is correct and it is easy to read.

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Don't complain.  By and large the posters on this site are models of clarity and usage.  If you want frustration go to one of the popular USA boating sites and speculate if anyone ever got past the second grade.   To be brutally honest however, I have noted that the British automobile and aviation sites I visit consistently exhibit higher standards for capitalization, spelling and punctuation  than any of their USA counterparts.

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On 5/30/2018 at 11:16 AM, kgreen said:

As one who has attempted search function on this website, I can tell you that I am much more careful about titles.  Even then, the search function on this forum leaves a bunch to be desired.

 

It's not only this site.......it's every site.

If you want results use google.

Type your search using general words....no descriptors (ands, ifs, fors and so on mean nothing when searching)....followed by the website name.......in this case aaca.org........no more no less.

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27 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

How come so many posters are clueless to the steps involved with posting a photo? Why does this site not accept photos that fit just fine on other sites? Bob 

 

Complicated subject.

Photos come in many sizes, some are a few kilobytes in filesize and others are many megabytes. I find many are clueless about filesize and forums like this one and others typically limit the filesize of photos they allow to be uploaded, because on an active forum the database size can quickly become very large and very expensive to support. People need to understand that if they choose to take pics at the maximum resolution of their device (camera or phone), they also need to learn how to resize them to smaller filesizes for uploading.

An additional factor is that there are numerous image file formats. The most commonly used ones are JPG and PNG, but there are many, many others. Stick with the two mentioned and you'll almost never have a problem.

The version of IP.Board that the AACA uses has just about the simplest method of uploading photos I am aware of. Drag a photo 'here' to upload, then either click the plus sign to add to the text block or the trash can icon to delete. If it gets any easier than that, I haven't seen it.

 

In terms of subject lines, here's my view, as someone who has run an active hobby (with nearly half a million posts) for almost 14 years.

Subject lines are almost always limited in field length, i.e. like a tweet, you only have a few characters to get your message imparted. So it is a good idea to make the subject line as 'information dense' as possible. I subscribe to the old journalistic standard of the who, what, when, where, and why, although if you can get the first three into a subject line, you've done good.

People almost never read the content of every post in a forum or on a search results page. The subject line acts as a 'teaser,' to get the viewer to elect to click to actually read the thread. If it's a question, use a question mark, etc. Bottom line, If you want people to engage and/or to participate in your thread, give them a reason to jump in.

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11 minutes ago, gwells said:

Photos come in many sizes, some are a few kilobytes in filesize and others are many megabytes. I find many are clueless about filesize and forums like this one and others typically limit the filesize of photos they allow to be uploaded, because on an active forum the database size can quickly become very large and very expensive to support. People need to understand that if they choose to take pics at the maximum resolution of their device (camera or phone), they also need to learn how to resize them to smaller filesizes for uploading

 

I'm going to respectively disagree.  What you are saying was true 10 or 15 years ago.  Now, there is nothing in the world cheaper than disk space.   You can get a web hosting account with unlimited disk space for a very reasonable amount of money,  and then pay another 3rd part to back the entire thing up for even less money.

 

So, for me,  I hate small photos!  ?

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Alsancle,

There are other relevant factors.

Not everyone has high-speed broadband and a thread with multiple large filesize pics takes significantly longer to load, as a number of my members often tell me.

 

And serving large photos has an impact on bandwidth, which is another metric forum owners have to consider, as does almost everyone who uses a cellphone.

 

My forum's database is under 25GB right now. If it runs over that, even by one megabyte, my hosting costs double. That's not a trivial amount of money for a non-subscription forum that doesn't overwhelm its viewers with advertising in order to generate revenue.

 

Yes, the common bleat these days is that nothing is cheaper than disk space, but that's not the only consideration.

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Fair enough. I lost track of the fact I'm always sitting on a high-speed connection, while that is probably not true for a good number of posters. I don't really have a good answer to the picture problem then. Small pictures are mostly worthless, while large pictures will not load for some users.

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On 5/28/2018 at 5:22 PM, Rusty_OToole said:

By the way this board has a very high standard of literacy.

 

Yeah, and the Buick section tends to have the most activity. Ain't that sumpthin'?

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On 6/1/2018 at 9:45 AM, Roger Walling said:

 I agree with Rusty _OTool, 

"By the way this board has a very high standard of literacy"

 I enjoy this site because the posts are written very well, as compared with other sites that I go to.

 When I post, I always read a second, or third time, to be sure my message is correct and it is easy to read.

 

I agree that this site has better spelling, grammar, etc., than most. There are still some that have trouble with: restore, restoration and restored.

 

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3 hours ago, alsancle said:

Fair enough. I  lost track of the fact I'm always sitting on a high-speed connection, while that is probably not true for a good number of posters. I don't really have a good answer to the picture problem then. Small pictures are mostly worthless, while large pictures will not load for some users.

 

There's a balance that I find works reasonably well.

 

The smallest image you'll typically see is 640 x 480 pixels. Many modern cameras and cellphones at max resolution generate images more than 5,000 pixels wide.

 

One problem is that almost no one can display an image at max resolution. For most people on most monitors (I'll ignore phones), a good compromise size is 1,200-1,600 pixels wide.

 

The version of IP.Board my forum uses (I'm one version behind for now) allows me to set a display size, but if a viewer clicks on the image it displays at the uploaded size. 800 pixels is the setting I currently use. 

 

One further point about image filesize. People who don't understand it are often frustrated when they can't email multiple pics to friends, not realizing that many mail systems will not allow emails with large attachment sizes.

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1 hour ago, alsancle said:

How do you tell the difference between '33 and '34?

 

 

Most '34 Packards have skirted front fenders and most '33s don't, as far as I know.

 

(That darn West guy will probably jump in to tell me I'm wrong, as usual. LOL!)

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