Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Is there any way--maybe through a process similar to classifying threads in the Swap Shop Forum--to get people to label their thread titles to more accurately reflect their post? For example, when someone titles a post "Awesome Ultramarine Character," and then I go inside to find a thread that merely says "Anyone got any ideas for an awesome ultramarine char?", I sorta get jacked off.

Maybe something like "Awesome Ultramarine Character [IDEAS]" would work better? That way, if I have something to contribte, I will. Otherwise, if I'm just looking for pics that interest me, I won't be wasting my time. Some ideas:

"TITLE [PICS]" - Pics included in post.
"TITLE [WIP]" - This is a WIP post, unpainted.
"TITLE [PIP] - Construction complete, painting in progress.
"TITLE [IDEAS]" - Need help with suggestions or idea for my project.
"TITLE [SHOWCASE] - Fully painted, competition-ready miniatures.

You could certainly combine qualifiers in the post title:

"TITLE [WIP] [PICS] - WIP post with pics.
etc.

Doable or not?

:O I really like this idea as I hate when that happens... I think double would be needed... i have a thread right now where i have finished contructions but am still trying to get ideas for painting sort of... so yeah... I would love this actually

Although the concept is cool, the sheer number of man hours involved in that kind undertaking makes it unfeasible. We simply get too many posts on a site-wide level to do it.


But really the lack of a question mark in the title of a thread that is the question is, by far, the biggest real annoyance.

The best solution is still to politely remind the user that they should include a '?' mark in their subject title if they are asking a question and also click on the 'notify moderator' button and in the reason field just put that you think the subject title needs a '?'.

That way even if the OP doesn't come back online for several hours a moderator will be alerted and can add the '?' to the subject title.

Given how much time I spend sometimes trying to keep the Swap Shop in order with its relatively low traffic, I'm totally with yakface on this one. I'd hate to be a mod trying to maintain order in the P&M forums. Considering that the Mod's volunteer their time to Moderate these forums, I can't imagine anyone would willingly try to undertake this venture.

I agree with you, though - some better disclaimer in titles are always nice to prevent people from becoming disappointed by clicking on a thread only to find it to be someone asking for suggestions/ideas. Yakface's suggestions are good for the P&M forums, I think, since people have a tendency of maintaining those threads, at least for some days after starting one. I feel like the only reason the stricter guidelines work (to an extent, I know there're still people put off by all of it) for the Swap Shop is because there is a lower volume of people going through it.

I also imagine that rolling out a change like that, even with MOD logistics handled, would cause quite an uproar on Dakka, if the Swap Shop changes from three months ago can be used as any indication.

Just my 2 cents.

Jin

Wow, I didn't know the Swap Shop Mods actually went about making all those changes. I know intially there will always be some amount of modding when changes are first put into place, but I didn't know that it was still a full-time job to get people to simply format their titles correctly this far into the change. Thanks for the reply, fellas.

You'd be amazed how many people - new and old alike - don't read the "READ BEFORE POSTING/RULES" stickies on forums.