Vague/Clickbait Topic Titles (AKA "Does anybody else hate it when.............")

[bloom]

My tongue is planted firmly in my cheek about my own title.

I've noticed that a lot of thread topics end up having extremely vague titles that do not indicate what the subject matter of the thread is whatsoever. For example:

• does anyone else like it when.......
• am I the only one who..........
• Is it just me
• has anybody else ever........

And then the latest one and the one that spurred this thread, which is "Are you into the sneeze........"

I realize this is kind of a minor issue, but is it possible to make it a community standard that thread titles... have to indicate what the actual thread content is going to be? I dunno, like, the last one is about the smell of sneezes, which is something that a large segment of the forum is grossed out by and something I would have liked to avoid re-reading, but the thread title was so vague there was no way to know what was going to be in there. I just think it might be a nice courtesy to make it so people know what the thread is actually about. I mean, even if you're trying to use the "don't like it, don't look at it" argument, click-baity thread titles don't give anybody the opportunity to do that.

I'm interested in other peoples' thoughts on this, so fire away.

[kendisima]

I would love if this was a thing. I'm one of the assholes who can't scroll past goddamn clickbait, and this most recent one you mentioned just pissed me off. I agree the whole don't like it don't look thing is valid, and I won't look at things I don't like when they're put in the title of a thread (i.e. I won't click on a topic that says 'Sneeze Smell' *gag*). But if it's clickbait ('Am I alone here or.....???' type stuff) I find myself needing to click it.

Maybe I should learn to control myself, lol.

tl;dr, I think having more specific titles would certainly contribute to the betterment of the community, and thank you for bringing it up, Junia

[Red Ring of Death]

I totally completely agree, especially when it's common courtesy to be really specific otherwise like in the fanfiction/fanart areas.

I just think it's polite to put what the conversation is about. It doesn't have to be COMPLETELY SPECIFIC but yeah, the multiple ellipses and the vague questioning is just appealing to people's curiosity only to have it bite 'em in the butt when they click on it only to be surprised/disgusted by just reading one sentence or even a word.

(Hahah I clicked on that thread too. Oops)

[Bubbles]

I read this thread, and you won't BELIEVE what happened next....

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I completely agreed with what you said!

I don't know if it would be possible to enforce any kind of title ruleset, however, unless mods read every thread and altered the titles, which would be time consuming and irritating, I'm sure. I feel the same when people mention celebrity names or people who the community have been waiting a lifetime to see sneeze, but they are only asking if anyone has seen them sneeze haha! It really is a first world problem, though, since it only takes a second to click a link and see it isn't what you want to read!

[tma]

I don't know if it would be possible to enforce any kind of title ruleset, however, unless mods read every thread and altered the titles, which would be time consuming and irritating, I'm sure. I feel the same when people mention celebrity names or people who the community have been waiting a lifetime to see sneeze, but they are only asking if anyone has seen them sneeze haha!

I've had that feeling with the celeb threads. There has been a couple where I'm like, "Really??!" and click it open and am like, "D'oh!!"

I have a modest proposal for if there is an particular thing that a good amount of people are icked about - **maybe** Staff could create a new tag. Obviously people don't always use tags, but having a tag would enable people to 1) find what they are looking for and/or 2) avoid what they don't want to see. I know that it is totally impractical to have tags for **everything**. But tags have been used for "mess" and for "emet" stuff ... because some in the community like and/or don't mind the particular aspect and others either have a strong aversion or phobia.

Just a random thought.

[Garnet]

Y'all have basically gone over any points I had to make, but I agree that a tag for this thing might be useful. I usually glance at them to determine whether it's a gender I'm interested in anyway, though I supposed that does hinge on people tagging stuff appropriately in the first place. Which I have little faith in

Also, the "am I the only one...?" phrase is one of my biggest fucking pet peeves in any discussion. I hate that phrase, shut up. There are seven billion people on this planet, you're PROBABLY not the only one who fancies or notices (usually actually a pretty common) thing.

[bloom]

I don't know if it would be possible to enforce any kind of title ruleset, however, unless mods read every thread and altered the titles, which would be time consuming and irritating, I'm sure.

This is one of the only solutions I came up with, and I agree that it might be time-consuming, but I do know some staff members alter topic titles to correct typos/spelling mistakes (in order to make the search function work better). And I think this is something along similar lines, just to improve functionality and usability.

A tag is a good idea too, but like Garnet, I have my doubts that people would use it, which would re-create the issue of staff having to edit things anyway.

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

I agree. Titles should have SOMETHING to do with the topic they're about. It's like, basic forum etiquette and I'm not sure why it's so accepted here. I never really thought about it until this thread brought my attention to it, but it occurs to me that this sort of vague-titling isn't tolerated on the other message board I enjoy frequenting.

[Chanel_no5]

I have done that on several occasions. Sometimes it has been because I simply haven't known how to boil the core down to a short enough sentence and still explain what it is about, and there has also been times I didn't want the topic to read so obvious that guest viewers without the fetish would bother reading it.

I didn't realise it was such a big issue for so many, I won't do it again. Sorry.

[LeapYearKisses]

These hadn't generally been bothering me, since I've been away from the board and not compulsively reading everything, but I'm noticing them a lot more now that I'm lurking around a lot more. (A few just popped up today, too!) I think they're pretty harmless, but it does really annoy me that a lot of the time no tags are used on them at all. Maybe, as Chanel said, it's hard to boil down the topic sometimes... but a lot I've seen aren't very complicated (like accidentally having a cough blessed... can't that be in a title instead of left as a vague general discussion topic?). I dunno. I wish there was more use of tags in general.

[Guest]

There should be stricter regulations for titles, I think. Many people's titles have little to nothing to do with what their topic is about. If one is going to go through the trouble of typing up a post they should at least have the courtesy to use tags and elaborate on themes in the name of their topic. However, if the staff were to buckle down and more heavily moderate it would pile a great deal more work on their proverbial plates. Because the fault lies with a handful of posters I feel that ultimately it is the members' own responsibility to see to it that they make the content of their posts clear to any would-be readers.

Oh, and I have to say that I, too, have noticed that a lot of clickbait titles tend to take you to awkward, disgusting topics. I wish that that weren't the case. After all, if there are no warnings, one does not know beforehand that things they dislike are lurking within, waiting to make their stomach churn.