A pitch for more effective THREAD "Titles:" and POST "Titles:" too !

[Samuel M. Ross]

This is a pitch more importantly for for contributors to this FORUM to create more informative and thus effective THREAD "Title:"(s) and to a lesser extent POST "Titles:" !?
I have pondered this subject for some time and particularly when I review the statistics for the various FORUMs and THREADs... e.g. see :
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/ and
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/

For some time I have noted that:
(1) There is NO WAY I'm going to be able to read the large number of THREADs/POSTs on the more popular FORUMs here at MercedesShop.Com. For me to even make such an attempt would take too much away from my learning experience that only comes from "hands-on" tinkering and repairing the various sub-systems of the 3 vintage MBZs that are now under my care... for I see myself much as the first-line family practitioner for these cars… doing most, if not all, of the day-to-day stuff and occasionally selecting and steering them to the appropriate mechanic for work that I do not have the tools/ability to perform.
(2) As I read through the large daily e-mail listing of POSTs regarding new and revised THREADs I find myself deciding which I will read largely based upon what is in the “Title:”(s)… and I suspect that others might just be doing the same thing. And I note that many of the THREAD titles I see posted appear to be selected for their “coy ” play upon words attempting to "titilate (sp?)" the reader much as we see in the headlines of our local “rag” media. And that’s fine and dandy, but here is the purpose of this THREAD/POST… my pitch as it were.

Use your “coy” titles IF you wish, but then add to either the beginning or I think best the ending of the title something like in the following examples... of more effective “Titles:” Try to think in terms of what happens to these POSTs/THREADs, namely that they become part of a huge database for others to use in the future and benefit from the specifics of their technical dialogue… a database that is only as useful as the ease with which we can “SEARCH” through that database. If we do this, I think we might see the need to write our “Titles:” more like these examples I have made from actual, recent, submittals to which I have added the underlined text at the end as an example of what I’m trying to say here… intended purely to IMPROVE our FORUMs/POSTs :
“240D vs. 300D – Parts Interchangeability”
“ All Hot and no cold!!! – Environmental ”
“Look what happened to me on the way to work today (pic) - 200K Odometer event !”
“Ease a worried mind – Transmission Flares”
“How Do I Remove this panel?? (pic) – DIY painting”

Enough already, I think you get the idea !

Your thoughts & comments on what I think could really help out here…

Girding my loins,
Sam

[MattBelliveau]

I agree.

[bgkast]

Just use a search and click "show posts" This way you don't need the title at all.

[Eskimo]

Hear, hear!

Excellent suggestions, Sam. I feel exactly the same way about titles for technical threads, but have never gotten up the gumption to start a thread about it. Thanks for doing so.

I think some folks get so far into the "conversational" groove that they forget that their "conversation" will become part of the body of information (and sometimes misinformation!) that is the Diesel Discussion.

[Rashakor]

Amen! That is precisely why you spend almost more time to write the title of a science paper than the paper itself. Tracebility.
BTW can administrators and moderators modify titles? that would really be the ultimate in moderation!

[PatricdeBoer]

I second the motion!

[Johnhef]

great idea, searches are always fun when it looks like nothing corresponds to what you're looking for.

[Samuel M. Ross]

Clearly this subject applies to THREADs/POSTs in FORUMs other than our beloved "Diesel Discussion"... so how can do this notion be brought to the appropriate "Powers-2-B". I'd like to see Brian Carlton chime in on this THREAD too... soon... I know you are out there Brian !

Q1 - How can we get a more broad spectrum display of this THREAD or do we need ONLY to let it take on its own momentum as others POST their support and/or comments ?

For the record, I'd be happy to help write up a THREAD that's intended to be given special archival status... one that is "BUMPed" or whatever the appropriate colloquial FORUM jargon is for giving THREADs some special visibility!

Q2 - What about having a special group of THREADs that "newbie(s)" are referred to when they first sign on before they are given POSTing powers!?
Sam

[Kynetx]

A lot of other forums use a "thread tag". I'm not sure if these support it. It's a tiny little graphical banner that indicates a subcategory, e.i:

Body
Interior
Engine
Oil
Fuel
Cooling
Electric
Vacuum
Suspension
Brakes

And so on...

[captainmonk]

much ado about nothing

[Brian Carlton]

Originally Posted by Samuel M. Ross

Clearly this subject applies to THREADs/POSTs in FORUMs other than our beloved "Diesel Discussion"... so how can do this notion be brought to the appropriate "Powers-2-B". I'd like to see Brian Carlton chime in on this THREAD too... soon... I know you are out there Brian !

Q1 - How can we get a more broad spectrum display of this THREAD or do we need ONLY to let it take on its own momentum as others POST their support and/or comments ?

For the record, I'd be happy to help write up a THREAD that's intended to be given special archival status... one that is "BUMPed" or whatever the appropriate colloquial FORUM jargon is for giving THREADs some special visibility!

Q2 - What about having a special group of THREADs that "newbie(s)" are referred to when they first sign on before they are given POSTing powers!?
Sam

If you will kindly check out the sticky entitled "Troubleshooting.....get the most from your post", written by Larry Bible, you'll find that it contains every point that would be of interest to a new member, including when to post a new thread and how to title it.

The fact that it exists and is not read by most members, including yourself, tends to discount the benefit of a second thread that basically says the same thing.

The moderator can, and usually will, edit the title of a thread if it's unsuitable.

[Hatterasguy]

Whats the problem now?

Just an fyi for the new members, most of the best stuff is in the archives from the old timers. The guys who have been around the block a few times with these cars are not that active anymore, and don't respond to posts that they have responed to many times in the past.

[Samuel M. Ross]

Originally Posted by Brian Carlton

If you will kindly check out the sticky entitled "Troubleshooting.....get the most from your post", written by Larry Bible, you'll find that it contains every point that would be of interest to a new member, including when to post a new thread and how to title it.
... ...
The moderator can, and usually will, edit the title of a thread if it's unsuitable.

... for the fact that Larry's THREAD escaped my multiple daily perusals of the E-mail "UPDATE" / summary of New/Revised THREADs/POSTs... this tends to prove my point which is that many of us DO NOT READ EVERY THREAD beyond the title that is initially used. You are 100% correct, Larry Bible's POST/THREAD at: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=127342 but for the same reasons I gave in my POST/THREAD, I had never read his POST until you told me about it. I guess his THREAD title: "TROUBLESHOOTING, Get the Most from your Post! ", just did not grab my attention enough to entice me into reading it beyond the title itself.

Much, if not most, of what Larry wrote is absolutely great advice and many of his points are so logical that many of us have adopted them without ever reading his THREAD. But there are others [ especially “newbies” as well as the rest of us ] who could benefit greatly if they were led early on to read a THREAD that would encompass the essential elements of Larry's THREAD and maybe even some of my original ideas that are valid. I concentrated on the initial THREAD "Title:" and I think the magic in such composition might come from keeping it short and "ILLUSTRATEing" the points. Larry largely did just this as I did in my slant on these closely related subjects... but if such ideas are relegated to the dust heap of the archives, we [the FORUM] will continue to operate but in a manner short of what we have potential for if we could figure out how to encompass such ideas so that our “newbies” are all-but-required to read such a THREAD before they are allowed to start POSTing... an instructional THREAD that is short and to the point as practicable and illustrates the points of both Larry's and my THREAD ideas.

I was hoping you might know how this might be accomplished "within the system" … at least for all of MercedesShop.Com’s more popular THREADS… and yes maybe even bring this idea of “required reading” to the producers of the software that for the most part automatically drives this FORUM each day !??

In the interest of IMPROVEment,
Sam

[Samuel M. Ross]

I would really be interested in seeing the computer software that drives the MercedesShop.Com FORUMs... I would like to see it calculate another statistic... and I think it would be simple for the programers to do...

Give us a calculation of the average for the number that appears on the right side of the initial POST that initiatess a thread... the #1 POST in the THREAD... yes, calculate numerical average of the number of " Posts: nnn " the originators of all past THREADs at the time they posted that POST that began their THREAD. Her is an illustration of the first point I made above:

Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: CA... No. of S.F.
Posts: 382

Call this the THREAD author Experience factor [ " TAEF " ].

This calculation could be made for each FORUM and displayed at the top of the screen whenever you first accessed any POST that is part of the THREAD.

And while we are at it why not calculate the average number of POSTs there are for each THREAD the FORUM has and post this just as I proposed above.
This could be called " Ave POST per THREAD " factor [ " APPTF " ].

Why have a " TAEF " and " APPTF "... well I see where these might serve to quantify and trend who the people are who originate THREADs [TAEF] as well as quantify the quality of our THREADS and/or POSTS [APPTF]. I would think it would be good to know what the "TAEF" is and what direction it is trending... AND we would want to see the overall number of THREADs to slow down while we might want the "APPTF" to increase. Who know where such calculation might trend!

Food for thought,
Sam

[Hatterasguy]

Umm see we at MBshop assume that our members are smart and savy enough to read the stuck threads, which are very clearly marked btw. Stuck threads are important, you are supposed to read the forum rules before posting, naturaly the get the most for your post thread is right above that, ie step two.

I sudjest a faster connection speed, with my cable modem I can click on many posts and have several windows open at the same time.