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.