The importance of a good thread title

[infernalis]

All too often folks begin new threads with really vague titles, this is counterproductive and many of the "hardcore" members that would most likely have the answers you seek will just skim over the title without ever opening the thread and even reading it.

Classic examples of threads that will most certainly get overlooked by the people you need to read it the most are...

"WTF!" - how in the heck is anyone ever going to know what it is that you want to know with a title like that??

"Problems please help" - help with what?? The appropriate way to post that thread would be "Problems with red tail boa please help" (I only used RTB as an example)

"I am so angry right now" - angry with what??

Just hope everyone is getting the general idea here.

This forum has a wealth of knowledgeable people who are willing to dispense free answers and advice, many of them are specialists who are only interested in reading certain threads, and if your thread lacks the proper title, it may get overlooked altogether.

For instance, If a member is a specialists in Python Regius (Ball Pythons) that member may only log on once in a while to skim over threads looking for people needing help with ball pythons.

So If you post under "general discussion" a thread that says something vague like "what am I doing wrong" then your best asset, the ball python specialist is never going to even see your actual question.

Now if you posted that same exact thread in the Python Regius section of the forum and used a very specific title like "My BP does not shed correctly, What am I doing wrong" then a BP expert will most likely respond to your query in a very timely fashion.

As forum moderator, it is my duty to read everything, however most of our knowledgeable members are very busy people who may only have a very limited amount of time to read the forums, So if you really want to pick their brains for information, the very first and most important step is to ensure that you get their attention right from the start.