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Rash of Poorly-Titled New Threads
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Cold Warrior
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Aug 24, 2007, 11:23 PM
 
I just wanted to bring this up collectively, rather than abuse the 'report post' button. There's been a rash of poorly-titled new topics lately. I've noticed it across a lot sections. People just seem to use any vague or pseudo-catchy subject that pops into their head. While I don't personally care, it's detracting from users' ability to find and get relevant information in the subjects, without resorting to reading each thread.

References posted below.

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...-a-question-p/
http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternat...ems/346228/xp/
http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternat...ging-for-help/
http://forums.macnn.com/92/networkin...e-power-to-ya/
http://forums.macnn.com/69/macbook-p.../alright-boyz/
http://forums.macnn.com/69/macbook-p...bp-few-things/
http://forums.macnn.com/69/macbook-p...dware-support/
     
Railroader
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Aug 25, 2007, 12:36 AM
 
That is annoying. The mods should go back and re-title the threads.
     
chris v
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Aug 25, 2007, 03:17 AM
 
5-6 years ago, I seem to recall that there were certain form members who prognosticated that if Macs really did start making serious inroads in the PC world, that we'd get flooded with clueless kids asking idiotic questions. Well, here we go.

I'm not sure that most of those guys would be capable of framing an intelligent question, and supplying relevant information -- especially that first link. I died a little inside when I read that.
( Last edited by chris v; Aug 25, 2007 at 12:13 PM. )

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. -- Jonathan Swift.
     
seanc
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Aug 25, 2007, 05:28 AM
 
It is horrible.
I think a new forum feature should be put in place, where for users with posts below 15, they have a big red banner stating the most important/useful forum rules, linking to the more detailed FAQ. One of these should be 'Please use descriptive thread titles for the appropriate subject'

MacNN is one of the only forums where I expect to be able to browse a list of threads and know what each one is about. Other forums just have continual list of threads like the ones above.
     
Peter
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Aug 25, 2007, 06:59 AM
 
dumb, won't auto retrieve thread names...
Anyway, they're all renamed, also mentioned they had daft titles and sent PMs out where appropriate. Also locked this thread cos it was daft.
we don't have time to stop for gas
     
Railroader
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Aug 25, 2007, 07:42 AM
 
You are da man Peter!!!
     
ghporter
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Aug 25, 2007, 11:48 AM
 
Originally Posted by Railroader View Post
That is annoying. The mods should go back and re-title the threads.
That's not always possible. Peter apparently was really motivated by how bad these particular threads were, AND had plenty of time to edit them. I don't always have that much time, and in particular when there are a bunch of them at the same time it can get overwhelming.

I'd ask all users to remind the newbies (who are almost always the ones with the worst titles) to use something other than "Help!!!!" as a title, and to refer them to the General Forum Rules. The rules require a descriptive title, and for a great reason-how many of us want to wade in and help someone who won't bother to tell us what their "Huge problem!!!" is about? It might help them if our experienced users gave them a hint for a better title, too.

And of course the grizzled, established users may need a reminder now and then that their titles suck. "Help with AD, Norm-o-matic and WerH8CN@@+" is gibberish to just about everyone, so keep that in mind when your issue can be jargon-filled. I learn a lot from threads about stuff I haven't messed with, but not when it's written in Martian.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Cold Warrior  (op)
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Aug 25, 2007, 02:01 PM
 
Thanks for policing this up. Hopefully titling will improve with some vigilance and coaching the "n00bs."
     
red rocket
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Aug 26, 2007, 05:25 AM
 
It's reached the point for me where I no longer even look at threads with ‘Help!!!’ (or similar) as a title. What I find possibly more irritating are the plethora of (okay, three) threads in the Art & Graphic Design forum asking for ‘Site Critiques’. It would be considerably easier to tell those threads apart if people used their sites’ names instead.
     
Moonray
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Aug 26, 2007, 05:53 AM
 
Originally Posted by Railroader View Post
That is annoying. The mods should go back and re-title the threads.
Ummm... I don’t think so. If the mods would start and clean up every poorly written topic title and then initial posts, after a while people will just come up with:

“Hey, my Mac is not working. See that you get this to be a urgent post in the appropriate forum and I want the solution today at 6 pm.”

-
               Do you want bug reports for the MacNN Forums to be in a single monster thread or in a subforum? Voice your opinion
     
Kevin
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Aug 26, 2007, 06:43 AM
 
Or these could be trolls. Known ones.
     
shifuimam
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Aug 27, 2007, 02:29 PM
 
Can the admins just enable the option in vBulletin that allows users to edit their own titles? I have more than once wanted to change or update the title of a thread for clarity...
Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
     
Rumor
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Aug 27, 2007, 02:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Can the admins just enable the option in vBulletin that allows users to edit their own titles? I have more than once wanted to change or update the title of a thread for clarity...
I second that.
I like my water with hops, malt, hops, yeast, and hops.
     
seanc
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Aug 27, 2007, 03:28 PM
 
There are a lot of features in vBulletin and I don't understand why half of them are disabled or not installed.

Editing thread titles is a useful one, as is deleting posts and threads by users. No reason to store them in the database if they're not wanted is there.

Auto locking old threads so they can't be resurfaced via Google searches.

I think user ratings/warnings exists on vBulletin, not sure whether it can be used to prevent users from posting in certain places etc depending on their rating or whether it's just to give a user brownie points. If it can be used to limit a users abilities on the forums which they then have to build back up to get full access, it would be good, because it would kind of be a punishment without a full outright ban.
     
C.A.T.S. CEO
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Aug 27, 2007, 04:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Can the admins just enable the option in vBulletin that allows users to edit their own titles? I have more than once wanted to change or update the title of a thread for clarity...
I agree. What is so bad about users editing their own titles?
Signature depreciated.
     
macdude
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Aug 27, 2007, 07:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
There are a lot of features in vBulletin and I don't understand why half of them are disabled or not installed.

Editing thread titles is a useful one, as is deleting posts and threads by users. No reason to store them in the database if they're not wanted is there.

Auto locking old threads so they can't be resurfaced via Google searches.

I think user ratings/warnings exists on vBulletin, not sure whether it can be used to prevent users from posting in certain places etc depending on their rating or whether it's just to give a user brownie points. If it can be used to limit a users abilities on the forums which they then have to build back up to get full access, it would be good, because it would kind of be a punishment without a full outright ban.
Without even having access to any of the NN admin control panels, I can say to you with 100% positivity that there are A LOT of features that aren't being used here.

Yes, there is a way to allow users to delete their own posts. Yes, there is a way to allow users to lock their own threads. User ratings are called user ranks in vB. If you'd like to allow a certain user rank to do something without allowing another to do it, you can ceratinly do that.

Infraction System

The infraction system allows you and your moderators to flexibly reprimand problem users. Create as many types of infractions as you want to represent any type of rules violation on your board. Each infraction has a controllable weight (points) and an option to allow it to be applied only as a warning, which alerts the user to their violation but doesn’t give them any points. Additionally, the points given to a user for a violation can be automatically removed after a specified amount of time via the Scheduled Tasks system.

The points are used to remove permissions from users that reach specific thresholds. To be more flexible, the existing user group permission system is used. You can see in the screenshot that “Registered Users” who have more than 15 points will have permissions from the “Infractions – Moderate All Posts” group applied, and any user with more than 30 points will get permissions from the “Infractions – Banned” group.



When an administrator or moderator wishes to apply an infraction to a user, he or she clicks the infraction icon on a post, and is presented with a choice of infractions and an option to send a private message to the user with more information. It is not a problem if a user has disabled private messages but that is a feature for another day. If private messages are disabled globally and email is available, an email will be sent to the user instead.



A user may also be given an infraction from their profile. The profile is also where a user's infraction history can be seen. Active infractions may also be reversed by users with appropriate permissions.



Infractions are implemented as a user group permission (not a moderator permission) so you can also allow any of your users to give infractions if you desire. A hierarchical system is used such that:

1. Administrators can not be given infractions
2. Super Moderators can only be given infractions by Administrators
3. Moderators can only be given infractions by Administrators and Super Moderators

A thread can automatically be posted in a specific forum when an infraction is given, allowing discussion of the violation to take place.



In addition to receiving a PM about an infraction/warning, users are alerted to new infractions in their User control panel.

With all these features, you can even make it to where certain users can, and certain users can't. This goes for just about ANY feature throughout vB. The software is designed so that when you create it for one person, it's just a few clicks away to do it for the next.

I should probably note that the infractions section was taken from vbulletin.com.
I was going to write it out all myself but you can probably understand this better.
( Last edited by macdude; Aug 27, 2007 at 08:24 PM. )
     
Peter
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Aug 28, 2007, 07:24 AM
 
that forum is really neat, good idea.
we don't have time to stop for gas
     
Demonhood
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Aug 28, 2007, 12:35 PM
 
infractions have been in place for quite some time.
and user title editing (outside of the first 10 minutes that you've made the thread) isn't a feature we'll be adding.
     
seanc
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Aug 28, 2007, 01:08 PM
 
Originally Posted by Demonhood View Post
and user title editing (outside of the first 10 minutes that you've made the thread) isn't a feature we'll be adding.
Why? What's the reason against it?
     
0157988944
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Aug 31, 2007, 01:40 AM
 
Yeah, I know theres tons of times I've realized I should have put something in the title that I missed.
     
Stogieman
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Sep 4, 2007, 11:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by Demonhood View Post
and user title editing (outside of the first 10 minutes that you've made the thread) isn't a feature we'll be adding.
What about extending the editing period to more than just 10 minutes?

Slick shoes?! Are you crazy?!
     
Kevin
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Sep 5, 2007, 05:52 AM
 
Because when a thread is derailed they don't want you changing the topic to what said thread was derailed to.
     
Randman
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Sep 5, 2007, 06:59 AM
 
Just lock the thread and ban the person for a week. Honestly, cleaning up this site of the garbage posters would improve it ten-fold.

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