Naming your thread.

[Dan Barr]

It has occurred to me that a little effort towards naming threads properly can help others when they search. Its hard to tell a newbie to search for something that you know wont return the correct results. Also, it just helps all of the other woodworkers find those answers a little more quickly and without having to post another thread when the information is out there but cant be found by search.

I'm not a moderator and I wont attempt to make any rules. I would just like to say that if you make sure to include the best key words in your thread title, it will enable any other user the best possible chance of finding the thread.

Poor Example: "DW557 complaints" (i dont know if DW557 is actually a biscuit jointer or not; just an example)

Good Example: "DW557 biscuit jointer fence alignment problems"

by including "DW557" and "bicscuit jointer", the search will return this thread for both DW557 and biscuit jointer thereby enabling a member to search specifically or in general terms.

Also, "fence" and "alignment" are more specific than just "complaints" and can help a search return more specific information related within the subset of "DW557" or "biscuit jointer"

anyway,

just my two cents.

V/R :)

Dan

[John Karam]

Agreed, I use the search a LOT and it does turn up a lot of useful info, but often it turns up things where there is a brief mention of my search topic but nothing else.

[glenn bradley]

Good recommendation.

[Daniel Simon]

AMEN brother. I've been wanting to post this for long time. Thanks

[Dave MacArthur]

concurr...
Titles like "a question..." always agravate me. When you look at the read count, you'll see maybe 200-1000 people had to open the thread to even see if they were interested in it.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I prefer the most obscure, offensive, and inflammatory thread titles I can come up with. It ensures a high readership.

[Tom Cowie]

I prefer the most obscure, offensive, and inflammatory thread titles I can come up with. It ensures a high readership.

:D :D

Cliff you get two smilies for that one..

Tom

[Gary Keedwell]

"Naming your thread" .....Oh shucks..I clicked on this because I thought it was going to be a game like " Name that Tune".:cool:
Gary

[Dan Barr]

Yes,

I agree, opening a vaguely named thread to find that it is of no interest is very annoying. Good call. Another reason to properly name your thread.

Dan

[Nancy Laird]

I prefer the most obscure, offensive, and inflammatory thread titles I can come up with. It ensures a high readership.


:D :D

Cliff you get two smilies for that one..

Tom

And he gets two big frownies from me.:( :(

Nancy (62 days)

[Jason Beam]

Is there ... somewhere on this system ... a "BEFORE YOU POST" sort of thing that people should read?

I am constantly conflicted with the choice ... "Oh, here is a thread named 'hey ...'. In Neander Haven ... It certainly doesn't sound enticing. But ... what if it IS!??" and then i spend a good few seconds actually fighting with myself. The only stand you can make (short of this discussion) is to just not click on it - but that helps nobody. I'm glad this topic came up. I've wanted to complain, too.

But .. can we solve this?

Is there a way to set the default text in the "New Thread" form? Something like "Type a DESCRIPTIVE title here so people know what you're talking about"

I'm sure that we could have a standard sticky at the top of each forum, which might be a start. But I must admit, I don't usually read the stickies, myself, so I'd bet that some others may not either. It'd be real nice if people were lead to be courteous and name their threads adequately. It really isn't askng much.


(And PC557 is a nice biscuit jointer. I don't know of a DW557 :P)

[Dan Barr]

I knew there was a 557 somewhere...

(crickets chirping)

lol

Dan

[Tom Cowie]

And he gets two big frownies from me.:( :(

Nancy (62 days)


Sorry Nancy :o To me it was all in fun.

being more descriptive in our threads is a positive idea.

Tom

[Chris Parks]

You can often get better search results by using Google advanced search and there you can restrict the search to any given domain such as this forum. A very useful way of searching any domain.

[Gary Keedwell]

What has not been mentioned is the friendly banter we share here at SMC. The easier it is to look things up...the easier it is to not ask questions. Now , I don't mean we shouldn't look things up but isn't socializing one the purposes of the forums?:)
Gary

[Dan Barr]

Yes, I agree. I like this forum because I CAN ask questions and carry on discussions and get great feedback form experienced woodworkers. I dont want to take that away or lead anyone towards a catalogued answer forum where all answers have been identified.

I just want people to name their threads properly so I dont waste my time reading through all that unrelated information or have to open all the threads that might or might not be related.

I know you agree with what i'm saying. I just get frustrated at times with the vaguely named threads.

When I need an answer and I dont have time to wait for 10 replies to come in, I want to be able to find it by searching effectively.


Google is by far, better than the standard search engine on the forum. But, I still get erroneous results, mostly unrelated, that I have to sift through. I do agree that it is more capable and returns a lot better results. It could return even better results if threads were named succinctly.

V/R

Dan