Topic titles: Do's & Don'ts

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Masika
Former User of the Month
Former User of the Month
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Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 2:47 am
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Location: England, United Kingdom

Topic titles: Do's & Don'ts

Post by Masika » Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:07 pm

Hey,

The original topic concerning topic titles was created by Songdog, however I have been given permission from Neamara to re-create the topic in order to give it slightly more depth and update it. The original topic can be viewed here.

This topic will outline general do's and don'ts when it comes to formulating a topic title. While some aspects may be dependent upon the context (e.g. having symbols in a title of a pack thread is usually accepted, however this may not be accepted when it comes to posting a topic asking a question), these are general things that you should consider whenever you're creating a topic and deciding on its title. I hope this helps you all out! :]

Do's:
  • Ensure that your topic title follows all of the guidelines that have been established for the forum. You don't want your topic to get locked just because you failed to follow the rules when creating your topic title! You can read the forum guidelines here.
  • Have a title that is relevant to the topic being discussed. A title that is relevant to the content helps for users to get a basic idea of what is being discussed.
  • Ensure that everything in your topic title is spelt correctly. While we all know that there will be times where we misspell something, it's always nice to ensure that everything in your title has been spelt correctly, especially since the title is the first thing users will view on your topic! A quick spell check never hurts. :] If you want to spell check on your browser, then there is a nice guide that outlines browsers that allow spell checking here.
  • Ensure that your topic title is clear. Whether it's checking that your topic title makes sense or ensuring that you haven't included anything to take away from the clarity of the title (e.g. chatspeak), it's always important to have a clear title for your topic as it will help people to read and understand the context of the topic.


Don'ts;
  • Use chatspeak. Not everyone understand chatspeak and it is able to take away from the clarity of the topic title, so it would be best to avoid using it!
  • Add random letters/gibberish (e.g. jhuygrfjesyrtu). This makes it unlikely that users will even check your topic because they do not understand the context of the topic based on the title or it may be labelled as 'immature'.
  • Using symbols in your topic title. It may be distracting from the content of the topic itself. When it comes to topics such as a pack or a shop, however, then symbols is usually well accepted. Although, it should be noted that excessive use of symbols should be avoided as too many symbols may be rather annoying; keep it limited. Example of excessive use of symbols; (******~~~---___~\{The_Excessive_Symbol_Pack}/~___---~~~******)
  • Use of excessive caps lock JUST LIKE THIS in your topic title. You don't gain anything by writing your topic title in this way.
  • Joining the words of the topic title together justlikei'mdoingrightnow. It makes it difficult for people to read the title, which is the one thing people should be able to read!
  • Vague titles, such as "I have a question", "Help me", etc. It does not really help the user to gain a good insight into what your topic is about, therefore it is important that your title is as specific as possible. Example: If I have a question about how to be user of the month, instead of writing "Question" in the title I would write something like "How do I become User of the Month?".
  • Don't use titles such as "Very important", "Please read!!?!!", "Click me bro", etc. As much as you may want other users to look at your topic, using such a title won't get you anywhere.
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