# What to do about older threads with unspecific titles



## EStjarn

I was doing a thread title search for discussions in the English Only forum on the use of the indefinite article in a list of noun phrases. I wanted to know whether, when there was a mix of indefinite article forms, it was preferable to use the elliptical variant or not, e.g. "a finger, arm, or toe" vs. "a finger, an arm, or a toe".

After a couple of failed attempts I learned that the best search string was "indefinite article" (without quotation marks). It rendered 75 hits, which is a good number seeing that my query was rather specific. Going by the thread titles, I then found three threads that were either relevant or semi-relevant to my question.

However, roughly half of the threads in the results had titles from which it was not possible to judge whether they were relevant or not. If I wanted to find out whether they were relevant, I would have to open them one by one, which I chose not to do.

My question is whether moderators would see it as helpful or not if members in cases such as this volunteered to "clean up the mess" by suggesting more suitable titles for threads whose titles are obviously unspecific?


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## cherine

Hi,
Personally, I would appreciate any help keeping the forum organized. It could be tiresome to edit many titles and merge several threads, but the end result is certainly worth it. Just don't be disappointed if your reports get ignored for some time, this could only be due to the mods being busy dealing with more urgent matters.


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## EStjarn

Thank you, cherine.


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## cherine

Thank _you_.


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## roxcyn

Click the red triangle on the thread and suggest a subject change to the title.  Maybe they could add appropriate tags to the thread.


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## EStjarn

Hi roxcyn,

I do that occasionally, and I reckon it is seen as helpful. But I was thinking more along the lines of suggesting titles for an entire list of threads the way they appear when we make a thread title search (see first link in OP).

Here's an example which is at the same time an actual suggestion of thread title changes in case moderators find it useful. I cannot fit all the threads into one post because of the per post character limit of 10,000. These are the first 46 titles (from a total of 75).

As you can understand, to perform all the edits, including considering whether the proposed title is appropriate or not (and if not come up with a better one), requires time. That's why I am not so sure moderators appreciate the initiative (unless, perhaps, their name is cherine).

Blank cells in the right column implies that the original title is fine as it is. I don't expect all my suggested titles to be seen as improvements over the original titles, but I hope some are.




*Original thread title**Suggested thread title/Comment*>> Topic summary: A/an: using a or an: indefinite article <incomplete>[Comment: Not a topic summary, just a link to a thread list]an indefinite article
Make <a> manual how to use <a> computer [indefinite article]An> Akbor isn't born often [indefinite article?]Brackets and the Indefinite Article
Indefinite article before brackets: <a/an> (unusually) long letter


< As the titles have been changed, I reduced the number to a few examples. 
Cagey, moderator>


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## Kelly B

I think most moderators appreciate the help, as long as you don't overwhelm them. I use reports to send lots of suggestions for title corrections and thread merges, knowing that if I have trouble with a search, someone else probably will, too. If people can easily find what they want, they'll be happy, and they won't start repetitious threads, and in the long term that means less work for everybody. 

When I see a results list like yours, I might open one of the threads with an unhelpful title and report the first post with a message like 
"Title XYZ would be more useful in a search. Also, there are dozens of other threads like it. Could you try to organize these when you have time?" When you're making your suggestion, consider all the keywords you tried that didn't work. (By the way, sometimes those will work if you try an advanced search instead.)

You shouldn't necessarily expect a reply to your report, but somebody on the moderator team will definitely read it. Most of the easy suggestions I've made have been implemented very quickly. Others haven't, and that's ok too. No harm done.  

I know cleaning a list like that one is a huge task, but someone might be willing to tackle it when the forums are slow.


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## EStjarn

Thanks for the input, Kelly B.


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## Beryl from Northallerton

I think I've applied most of your suggested changes, Est. Since I'm notoriously unreliable, and quite often drowsy, perhaps you'd care to check my working. 

Thanks very much! It must have taken you quite some time to draw up that table. Your efforts are very much appreciated. 

Beryl (Mod).


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## Kelly B

Well, then, thanks to both of you, from the rest of us.


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## EStjarn

Beryl from Northallerton said:


> . . .perhaps you'd care to check my working.


Thank you for making the changes, Beryl. They have been checked and only one item from the table was found missing. It is included below. I'm pleased to see that most of my suggestions went through; with regard to those that didn't, I think I can see why they did not, so I have learnt something in that respect.


Beryl from Northallerton said:


> It must have taken you quite some time to draw up that table.


The activity did take some time, but not so much owing to the table drawing since one may copy the results of a thread title search directly into a table. But my question now is, is it practical for moderators to receive a table of threads like the one above (or below), or would you rather see, as in a case like this, some 50 individual reports?

If the former (which I personally would prefer since I have found that working with tables makes this activity more ordered), then how are we supposed to submit the tables or lists? The only line of communication with the moderator team that I'm aware of is the report-a-post feature, but I don't believe its design permits either links or tables. PMs would work, but moderator teams don't have PM accounts, do they?


I would not suppose that this thread could be a place where we post tables or lists of thread title changes, but for completeness I submit the part of the table that couldn't fit in post #6. It includes the suggested title edits for the remaning 29 threads as well as for the thread mentioned above.

< Information sent to moderators. 
No longer needed here.  >


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## Cagey

Hello, EStjarn.   

Thank you once more for your help.   
I've reported the post so that mods can make the suggested changes.

As to your question:

Although the moderators of a forum have no shared address, you can send a message to two or three moderators, and they will be able to share it with the rest of the team and discuss it or take action.  I suggest sending the message to more than one moderator because individual moderators may be away from the forum for a while.  

Note: If you send the message to more than one moderator, please say so in the message, so that the moderators can communicate with one another before taking action. 

With the current system, you can create a table in the Private Message, however, when we move to the new system you will no longer be able to to create a table in the comparable system.  When that happens, please contact the moderators by private message, and we will try to work out something else.


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## EStjarn

Hello Cagey,

Addressing a PM to several moderators is indeed an option, which I failed to consider. Thank you. 

After I sent the previous post, I received privately some information on how to create tables in the Report-a-Post editor: simply use BBCode. Such code may conveniently be obtained by first creating a table in, for example, a forum post editor in a normal fashion, then clicking "Switch Editor to Source Mode", and then copying the resulting code into the Report-a-Post editor. 

We did not try this out for the tables I posted above, but I find the idea compelling. Whether or not it might be relevant in the new system remains to be seen.


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## wildan1

I agree with other moderators that we appreciate it when members report threads whose titles might be improved, or multiple similar threads that could be combined. After 10 years of activity, the WR's busiest forums have so many threads that our volunteer team cannot systematically go through them all anymore.

Please realize that different forum teams have certain protocols for how they organize thread titles--so one language forum's style can be somewhat different from another's.

In a busy forum (English Only, French-English, Spanish-English notably) such requests may wait a while if there are pressing issues to resolve on a given day.

wildan1
FR-EN & Culture Café Moderator


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## EStjarn

Thank you for the feedback, wildan1. 

I would like to comment on something I mentioned in my previous post: the possibility of posting tables via the report-a-post feature. It appears to be working also in this XenForo version of WordReference. However, creating the necessary BBCode by using the abovementioned method is not possible (yet), perhaps because the post editor toolbar does not include a "Table" function (yet).

One work-around is to use an online table converter, such as the one at TheEnemy.dk: submit a table, receive the necessary BBCode. Note that it will not convert hyperlinks to BBCode, but this can be done with, for example, a forum post editor.


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