I find most forum Topic Titles are so long. It's like the whole story is in the title. Hard to read at a glance.

Could we go with an unwritten rule keeping it to 5 words or less in the main title and subtitle?

Think of what newspapers and magazines do with their titles.

Just an idea.

What do you think?

Another idea is:

Instead of a long, long main title, split it up into main and subtitle.

Here's an example:

Topic Title in long form:

It Appears that Senator Hillary Clinton has chosen for her running mate for Vice President, Her Husband, former President, Bill Clinton

A possible edited version:

Hillary Clinton

Picks Bill As Running Mate

Edited August 23, 200817 yr by HarleyEarl

Leaving vowels out also can be used to shorten topic titles.

I'm guilty of long topic titles.

That's because I want to get as many reads as possible.

It does get a bit annoying though.

Thnx 4 da sggstn

1t$ fu|\| 2 81T(|-| @ $1LLy t|-|1|\|G$

Maybe shorter titles will save precious disk space and lead to fewer of those dumbass 'CPU quota exceeded' errors...

:lol:

I personally find the bigger annoyance when people's thread titles don't describe what's in the thread at all.

Topic Tities?

I don't think there should be a "rule" per se, but I would agree some people go overboard with thread titles. That said, many are copy/pasted article headlines reposted/quoted here, and I don't know how comfortable I'd be with re-titling other authors' articles to shorten title length on here.

If you're speaking of stories from the press, I think it should match the original title - that way it helps eliminate double-posting. Also, I strongly believe that no one should re-title stories with their own opinion/slant to the headline. And I also strongly object to a few select recent examples that were misleading - look in the Buick section.

Well, I had a 14-page dissertation all typed up and ready to go on this subject, but decided to $h!can it at the last moment.

I think the titles should be in German!

I think the titles should be in German!

Espanol.

Espanol.

I think you mean Español.

I think you mean Español.

Haha...funky keyboard move to get the tilde, eh?

Haha...funky keyboard move to get the tilde, eh?

Not really, I have a program that allows me to type in German, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, etc. It transform my keyboard into those keyboards. I do switch to the German keyboard the most though, because of where I am.

Edited August 24, 200817 yr by Pontiac Custom-S

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I think we should go for Chinese to have the most universal appeal. That is unless our site is blocked over there.

Look, it's not a criminal offense to have a really long title that is hard to read.

It was just an idea to make the Topic Title page easier and faster to read.

And I don't advocate a hard and fast rule.

I'm more concerned that topics that belong elsewhere in this forum go elsewhere in this forum.

I R NOT RED T3H GRATEST

Well, I had a 14-page dissertation all typed up and ready to go on this subject, but decided to $h!can it at the last moment.

Wow! With that kind of planning and ROI, GM will be beating down your door to offer you a job in no time!