Rant about Forum Posting

I agree with the sentiments in Matirs post. I usually find that a link to the rules and a polite message telling the *culprit* the error of their ways resolves the problem.

And don't you just *HATE* all those bloody threads that are just rants about Forum Posting ...

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(Aussie humour folks, just a joke)

Now this has come up again, I think the ability to edit the thread title by the OP is a must!

Seriously, I've heard plenty on this, but no single convincing argument against it.

Please allow us to edit thread titles. Sometimes we do make mistakes and want to correct a thread title. Since we're allowed to edit post contents, why not the thread title (which shows up in the forum view?) I mean, ok, it's open to abuse, but then what isn't?

At least if 5% of users used the [solved] header , it would be a good thing. Why not? Who cares if the 95% didn't use it? At least it would help 5% of us show the community that we have solved a problem and hopefully help others find a solution.

I know many members who want this facility. For some odd reason, the moderators seem to be extremely conservative on this issue and want to maintain status quo.

As a matter of fact, moderators can't edit thread titles either. Only Jeremy can do this, so we're in the same situation as you! It does seem somewhat odd in vbulletin that the thread title in the not title of the first post of a thread, just a copy of it on creation. To me that's an illogical way to build a thread in a database, but it is simpler i guess.

As a matter of fact, moderators can't edit thread titles either. Only Jeremy can do this,

If moderators can't edit thread titles, then if somebody advertises "Come visit www.mysiteurl.com" in their thread title, how do you handle that?

That seems to be rather of a handicap!

This may or may not be a useful suggestion. I'm sure you all will let me know. So here goes.

How about adding a little note at the bottom of the page where the post reply box is or in the post reply area. Something like

"Please do not use the following in your thread title"
URGENT, Plz help, I have an error, or numbers for letters.

or a more simple note could be.

"Please be descriptive in Thread title and post."

While these may be posted in the forum rules, considering that people may not read the rules, a small note on the post page may be helpful imho.


peace V

"Please be descriptive in Thread title and post."

We already have this message and a guidance in the "Post Thread" view. You can see it on the left hand side of the input fields.

It says:

Bad: "Help Me!!" or "URGENT" Good: "Why is my mouse pointer wrong?" Best: "Mouse pointer distorted on XFree86 4.3 with Geforce FX 5200"

It's just that most people don't read it or ignore it.

Sorry 'bout that. Well it shows how many threads I have posted. Which is maybe 3 back in 2004 I think.

Thanks Harishankar


peace V

correction: I posted one thread this year in July about ibuild.

Originally posted by Harishankar It's just that most people don't read it or ignore it.

Put it in a red div and use jscript/dhtml or CSS to make it blink. This is one of the few occasions where the use of the blink tag/style would actually be appropriate.

A couple notes:

- If you post a thread title in all caps, it will automatically be lowered cased. We can't just start filtering arbitrary words - for instance what if "URGENT" appears in a valid error message?
- The mods already have 1 click access to common responses.

--jeremy

Originally posted by jeremy A couple notes: - If you post a thread title in all caps, it will automatically be lowered cased. We can't just start filtering arbitrary words - for instance what if "URGENT" appears in a valid error message? - The mods already have 1 click access to common responses. --jeremy

Anyway we can exclude some of the these types of characters from being used consecutively in titles:

@!!!!!!@%$^%&*#%^(($)^)(

Note: I took this from an actual thread, I truly believe titles with garbage characters that have nothing to do with the title should be removed from the title.

Originally posted by Matir I do think thread title editing is a critical point.

Either that or some sort of scripting that checks thread titles for "!!!!!!" "help meeee" "plzzzzzzzzz" the post goes out until the author removes the lameness factor. I know I, for one, won't even click on a thread titled "help" or "help me".

Originally posted by trickykid Anyway we can exclude some of the these types of characters from being used consecutively in titles: @!!!!!!@%$^%&*#%^(($)^)( Note: I took this from an actual thread, I truly believe titles with garbage characters that have nothing to do with the title should be removed from the title.

I agree, but some (odd) error messages might include some of those things. Though I guess that should be kept to the thread body.

Originally posted by Matir I agree, but some (odd) error messages might include some of those things. Though I guess that should be kept to the thread body.

I doubt that most error messages would have so many consecutively, like I mentioned.

Perhaps limit it to maybe 3 in a row.

limit "help me" hlp plz plzzzzz hlpppppp !!!! #@$%@ etc is a yes please! perhaps if not remove the word urgent, perhaps throw a popup- "Are you sure you want to use the word urgent, remember that many members will not look at your question if the title contains the word urgent.."

um... I think a popup would be great in the search function too- enter one word and it will tell you "one word searches are a heavy drain on our servers. please refine your search (add more words) to help us and find a more specific answer."

anyway- perhaps a warning system- users who have more than 5 threads (after a certain date, to avoid hurting reformed members) and then a more strict remove list is enforced for a time period.

titanium_geek