Subject line content is getting slack and too short

[andyP]

This is to be regarded as an observation and unfortunately a little bit critique.

IMO some post subject lines seem to be getting shorter and shorter, before I enter a post I like to have a rough idea about the theme, it gets the grey cells going. However lately I've noticed alot of subject lines are getting a little too short. i.e. in General ThinkPad there is one that purely says "Why?" Why what?? Why did the chicken cross the road? - we all know the answer - to get to the BBQ.

It says:

Compulsory Rules
screw-up here and we might cut you some slack..

1. Use descriptive subject lines and research your post [snip]

Common sense says; 100% right - let people know what I want to discuss or with what I need help

Am I barking up the wrong tree here, or are other members of the same / different opinion?

[rkawakami]

I agree, and this may be sacrilegious saying this, but I don't know if / how enforcable the rule can be. As I am the second-newest mod here, I can only say that I cannot remember any thread being killed or subject line being changed to be more descriptive (other than by adding *PIC*). I personally have not modified a thread title (as far as I can remember) to be more "correct"; PIC being excepted. I tend to think that the OP is in the best position to start off the subject. If they want to get the help/attention that they need, then it's in their best interest to be as descriptive and succinct as possible, given the fairly short subject line length (60 characters). If I'm being lax in my mod duties then I'd hope one of the other mods/admins will straighten me out.

This also points out the problem with previous requests for searching just the subject lines when mining the archives. It's only as good as the collective "intelligence", for lack of a better word.

[JHEM]

I've edited hundreds of subject lines over the years Ray, they're just not always noticeable.

Nonny has edited a few over the years as well.

James

[BillMorrow]

perhaps i could gen up a notice to users when logging in..
but i'm not sure how to bounce to a message page and then to the forum..

i'm thinking there should be some sort of heads up notice that all MUST pass through before getting to the forum..

[bill bolton]

I can only say that I cannot remember any thread being killed or subject line being changed to be more descriptive (other than by adding *PIC*).

Subjects being changed certainly does happen. Some Admins/Moderators do it, and some don't.

The difference between something being regarded as either overly terse or overly verbose is often matter of taste more than anything else. Personally I don't see any endemic issues with overly short topic subjects here.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[rkawakami]

<snip>... but i'm not sure how to bounce to a message page and then to the forum..

If you could point the member at an pre-designed HTML page which contains your note or message and the "refresh" meta tag as in this example:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10;url=http://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php">

The "10" in this example is the number of seconds which elapses before the redirect takes place. One drawback with this code is that the user will always be directed to the URL in the meta tag and which may not be where they were trying to go when they signed in.

It may also be possible that phpBB has a built-in "message of the day" feature/function, which could be used for this.

[BillMorrow]

ray,

i don't think phpBB has a message of the day feature..

nor do i recall one being mentioned on the not for free BB application packages..

and even if there were i am a little reluctant to give up phpBB now that i have it tweaked to enforce a location, keep spambots out and the advert banner..

maybe a banner or moving marquee like message of the day..?!
might be something pre-canned i can add..