Long Topic Titles

[Jim Kelly]

Are some topic titles too long? It used to be that you had a restriction on the length of topic titles, which forced the posters to say succinctly what the topic was about. Usually the topic was just the springboard. The initial post expanded on the topic, posed any queries and gave direction for where the thread should go from there. Now the whole topic is stated at length in the title and sometimes the original post is even shorter than the title itself.

When scrolling through a forum, I shouldn't have to read through long titles just to get an idea of what the topics are about. Three words can usually sum up any topic. Why doesn't CBR institute a policy of restricting the number of characters in any topic title to some smaller amount? If we can be forced to post more than 10 characters in our responses, then surely the opposite restriction can apply to titles.

[Expletive Deleted]

Thread titles are currently restricted to 100 characters. I believe that's consistent with the settings on the old forums.

If you're seeing people start threads without significant content in the first posts, let a mod know. We do want thread starters to put some effort into their posts, and there is a general forum rule to that effect.

[Jim Kelly]

I think it should be shorter. 75?

When I first started doing my own blog, I came up with much longer titles for my posts, but then I realized this leads to long links if you want to post a link on another site. Sure, you can embed links, but sometimes you want to post the full link, so folks can see it and be assured that they aren't being rick-rolled. Now I try to come up with much shorter titles (around 30 characters) for my blog post so the links aren't so long. You have to take into account that there's already the address for the site coming before the title in the link.

[just another user]

Personally I like the long titles. What I find annoying are really short titles that don't really indicate what the thread is about, so they clickbait you into having to open the thread. Like "does anyone think....." Or "hulk question" Fortunately I haven't seen many if those since the reboot.

[Jim Kelly]

This message board may have had a 100 character limit (I never tried to post a title that long, so I never would've known), but I know that other message board had (and some still do) much shorter topic title requirements. I think of it as a challenge. There are a lot of useless words in many topic titles that don't need to be there--and it just exposes a lazy effort on the part of the OP. If I'm going to post a topic, I want it to be succinct and artful.

Baiting people is wrong, but at the same time it's good to come up with a topic title as a headline that sparks interest. Most of the time, when I read these long topic titles (that are more like tweets than titles), I just want to yawn.

But if most posters are fine with it, then I can accept that. I just thought it was a worthy subject to post for comment and discussion.

[ish kabbible]

Personally,I think 3 posts on the same thread within 5 hours exhibits a rambling,hazily focused opinion on the matter.I would much prefer someone to make their point succinctly and then get off the stage. I think 2 posts within 5 hours is more than enough for one to make their point.

But if most posters are fine with it, then I can accept that. I just thought it was a worthy subject to post for comment and discussion.

[Jim Kelly]

Personally,I think 3 posts on the same thread within 5 hours exhibits a rambling,hazily focused opinion on the matter.I would much prefer someone to make their point succinctly and then get off the stage. I think 2 posts within 5 hours is more than enough for one to make their point.

But if most posters are fine with it, then I can accept that. I just thought it was a worthy subject to post for comment and discussion.

Sorry for posting again--this will probably be my last response anyhow--bur are you being funny? Or are you actually trying to offend me? I can't tell. From reading your other posts, I never had a bad opinion of you--so I'm hoping you're just making a joke that I don't find funny at the moment.

[ish kabbible]

I forgot my smiley. I enjoy a parody growing up on Mad magazine.All in jest my friend