Suggestion About Subject Headings...

[gfmucci]

Subject headings on new topics can be either very helpful or quite misleading or overly generic.

Two examples:

"I Could Not Believe My Eyes" is one in the "overly generic" category. :dontknow: That one was obviously and admitedly written to be provocative and to increase the number of clicks on the forum. If people understood from the heading that it was just another rude dog owner thread, they probably would not have clicked. But the bottom line: The subject title was not very informative or helpful.

Another example is "You Get What You Pay For." ??? This one is in the "misleading" category. The original post was about a lazy, unresponsive Realtor. It didn't really have anything to do with paying for anything.

I understand the purpose of the forum is a combination of entertainment and information, and maybe raise a few bucks for the web site owner. But it would be even more helpful and useful and efficient if the subject titles for the posts reflected a nice, concise, pithy statement of what the content of the posting actually is.

A few excellent examples of pithy, helpful, on-topic subject headings are:

- "Quality of New Homes" :clap2:
- "Libraries in the Villages" :clap2:
- "Volunteer Opportunities in the Villages" :clap2:
- "Happy New Year from _____" (instead of "Lookie Here People") 040

No big deal, but I think the forum would be better if more people did this.

Happy New Year, Villagers, and Villagers to be! :beer2: :beer2: :beer2:

[redwitch]

:agree: :agree: :agree:

[villager99]

point well made,
may i add that i think non-informative subject lines and overly "in-crowd" chatting on the board will discourage new folks from coming back, posting etc.
we can't be everything to everyone but i fear folks not familiar with the ups and downs of message boards will hesitate to stick around and that will be a lose for all of us.
i hope the board contents improve in 2008. and helps new old timers and perspective homeowners learn about our community.
as our community grows in area this online exchange of ideas should prove even more valuable.

[Talk Host]

The members of this board are free to post any Subject line that they think will entice people to read the thread. We would discourage those that are deliberately deceiving. My advice to those who find that a threat is something that they don't want to read, is to immediately click away from it and go on to something else. It takes about two or three seconds to determine that it is something that you are not interested in, while it takes one, two, three or five minutes to read through a thread that you don't like and then post a reply.

I'll give as an example. Me: "I couldn't believe my eyes." You: "oops another dog post, I don't want to read this......click."

[The Great Fumar]

Well said Jan........sounds like someone should have asked for an automatic mouse for Christmas...

[Talk Host]

I just removed a message in this thread that was posted by one of the members. In it, the member tried to make an illustration about misleading subject lines. The subject line that he chose to write, was a horrendous fictional headline about a makebelieve disaster in the Villages. It was poorly conceived, therefore it was removed. He may repost his thread without that fictious subject line in red.

[gfmucci]

Good job...point made!! :#1: :agree: :agree: And what is the point, you ask? That sensationalist or misleading headings for the sake of increasing clickership is cheap and diminishes the quality of the site.

[redwitch]

Okay, here's my feelings. I didn't mind another thread on dog poop -- I think the tirades are rather amusing (sorry, folks). I loved Tony wishing us a happy new year. When Osh posted the, "do you think she knew," I liked her message. However, in all of these examples, I resented being rooked in -- I would have been much happier with an honest heading. A heading that let me decide if I wanted to read it or not.

And yes, I can go into a post and see it is of no interest and then immediately leave but (1) I'm nosy and (2) I'm lazy. So, I'm in the post, I'm gonna read it just in case there's something of interest halfway down. Besides, I'm here, why bother with a click when I can be reading. I'd much rather know what I'm going to be reading about before I start reading.

By putting in a misleading heading, you don't credit the group with being able to make a decision for themselves. Heck, in the last two days I've read posts 4 or 5 times (and these were posts that held zero interest for me) just to do what I could to get the 400,000.

So, I do agree with gf. Putting in a misleading heading is very irritating and, I think, condescending. Sorry, guys.

[zcaveman]

:agree: :agree: :agree: