Changes to thread titles.

[Guest]

I've noticed that in recent weeks thread titles are being changed rather more often than they used to be.

 

I can understand why titles originally posted as 'Help!!!!!!' (with enough exclamation marks to fulfil the twenty character requirement) would be changed in order to make it more informative. However, the recent change to the Richard Hammond thread title seems a bit excessive.

 

Is this a new policy, or are the mods getting a bit bored?

[rubydazzler]

OMG! Hecate, I just made a similar comment in the anit-war protest thread. Greatrminds etc

 

I think it's bad when someone posts a thread with an offensive or inflammatory title, the first few responses are maybe to that, and then it's changed to something innocuous and makes the responses look bad

 

One that comes to mind was "Who made women the superior race?" or words to that effect, someone said it was offensive and it was later changed to "Why do women seem favoured in the family courts" or something equally reasonable. Which sort of gives the impression that the OP was being reasonable too.

 

Personally, unless it's for a very good reason, I think thread titles should be left as they are.

[Guest_225]

SF is definately over-moderated at present. It's starting to lose it's character and life,

 

PottS

[alchresearch]

However, the recent change to the Richard Hammond thread title seems a bit excessive.

 

I reported the Richard Hammond thread title. I'd logged on yesterday and saw the "Richard Hammond Critical" title at the top of the page and assumed that he'd suddenly had a relapse and taken a turn for the worst.

 

There's nothing wrong with the mods keeping the site up to date.

[sccsux]

SF is definately over-moderated at present.

 

Agreed (some strange moderating descisions have been made recently).

 

 

It's starting to lose it's character and life

 

Indeed it is. Though, to be fair, it is usually relatively quiet on here at this time of year.

[Tony]

Yes the Mod Team is picking up more thread titles and making them reflective of the content, so thanks for noticing

 

One that comes to mind was "Who made women the superior race?" or words to that effect, someone said it was offensive and it was later changed to "Why do women seem favoured in the family courts" or something equally reasonable.

 

Well that title tells you nothing of what's inside the thread does it? We like titles to be descriptive and accurate and we don;t like titles that are undescriptive, lazy or attention seeking, or ones that try to 'trick' you into reading it. "Who made women the superior race" falls into a couple of the above reasons for changing.

 

 

 

When people hit the 'View new posts' link (the most used part of SF) we like the list to be accurate and informative, and to be honest it's never been any different although we change fewer titles these days than we used to because the members are more experienced now and know these little foibles that go to making a great forum like SF

 

I reported the Richard Hammond thread title. I'd logged on yesterday and saw the "Richard Hammond Critical" title at the top of the page and assumed that he'd suddenly had a relapse and taken a turn for the worst.

 

There's nothing wrong with the mods keeping the site up to date.

That's a good example of where we try to keep the thread title up to date where the circumstances have changed so it is now entitled "Richard Hammond injured (but now recovering thankfully)"

[Guest]

...There's nothing wrong with the mods keeping the site up to date.

I agree. Anyone interested in Richard Hammond would click on the thread and be updated as to his condition by reading the last few posts, though.

 

Are all the recent thread title changes due to them being reported by users?

[Tony]

Not all, but we Co-Admins are very keen on keeping titles accurate, as the Mod Team will confirm.

[medusa]

The thread title changes that happen on the forum are intended to keep threads easy to use for forummers (exactly the same as when threads are moved- if it's not about sport, people won't look at it in a sport section).

 

Forum rules ask that thread titles are descriptive so that people don't have to open the thread to find out if they want to look at it, and lots of people don't think about that when they post a thread (so, as Hecate says, titles of 'Help!!!' need something adding to separate them from all the other titles saying 'Help!!!').

 

Quite a lot of the quickly changing thread titles reflect the number of times that forummers don't search the forum before posting a thread. When Steve Irwin died I think I merged 5 threads together (and I don't know how many other mods did), and each time we do a merge the thread title gets re-entered to reflect the content of each merge.

 

There are also lots of threads that end up merged with older threads that have already asked the same question- so the newer thread gets 'swallowed' and takes on the title of the older thread.

 

And there are threads that are about a news story, which are only current until that news story changes, or more information becomes available. As alchresearch says, the Richard Hammond thread (also merged repeatedly) was only current about him being critically ill while he was critically ill. After that it becomes about his recovery, and wishing him well.

 

And finally there's also a category that needs to be changed, where users ask one question and the thread marches off in a totally different direction. We're left with a title that doesn't reflect the content or context of the thread- if it's a battle to keep the thread talking about the title, is it easier for all concerned just to match the title to the contents?

[Guest]

... Well that title tells you nothing of what's inside the thread does it? We like titles to be descriptive and accurate and we don;t like titles that are undescriptive, lazy or attention seeking, or ones that try to 'trick' you into reading it. "Who made women the superior race" falls into a couple of the above reasons for changing. ...

But what it does do is give you an indication of the poster's intention. A polite and reasonable title inserted by a mod might not reflect the content of the post.

 

An attention-seeking - or provocative - title usually reflects an attention-seeking and provocative post. Changing the title of such a post might trick me into reading something I would otherwise avoid.