On Thread Titles

[Sprite]

This is mostly just a pet peeve, so feel free to ignore me, but I wanted to whine a bit about our philosophy behind thread titles while we're populating the new board. We tend to want to put jokes in thread titles, which is great and should continue, but we also tend to put the jokes at the beginning of the title, and then the actual title at the end. I wish we could flip that, because sometimes it's really difficult to figure out what's actually being discussed while looking through the forums.

The biggest examples right now are the three thread titles which start "Like a Dragon," "Like a Dargon," and "Like a Dangan." It's a great riff, but also a dyslexic nightmare when put at the beginning of the title. The threads could be titled "Yakuza General Discussion: Like a Dragon," "Dragon Quest: Like a Dargon," and "Danganronpa: Like a Dangan,"and be just as funny while also easy to decipher.

And yes, I was just as prone to this in 2.0 as anybody. It's only in the past couple years that it's started to bother me.

P.S. I would legitimately like to request that we not have thread titles that are 90% emoji.

 

[Positronic Brain]

This actually sound sensible to me, and I'm sure the hrad creators would be willing to change them.

....Can thread creators change titles?

 

[Mogri]

Generally yes. The old restriction is gone.

 

[Jeanie]

I changed the order of the Skyrim thread name.

 

[WildcatJF]

I can change mine!

 

[Torzelbaum]

This is mostly just a pet peeve, so feel free to ignore me, but I wanted to whine a bit about our philosophy behind thread titles while we're populating the new board. We tend to want to put jokes in thread titles, which is great and should continue, but we also tend to put the jokes at the beginning of the title, and then the actual title at the end. I wish we could flip that, because sometimes it's really difficult to figure out what's actually being discussed while looking through the forums.

That seems entirely reasonable.

So serious question about this - what is the best or preferred way to separate the joke title from the actual title. Should the joke be in parentheses or come after a colon or hyphen?

P.S. I would legitimately like to request that we not have thread titles that are 90% emoji.

I agree.

 

[Sprite]

So serious question about this - what is the best or preferred way to separate the joke title from the actual title. Should the joke be in parentheses or come after a colon or hyphen?

I dunno, I don't think we need a style guide or a crackdown or anything like that. Nothing wrong with being creative. Just something I felt like airing in the hopes that people might be mindful.

Shout out to teg's "Owl House, in the Middle of Our Tweet." Perfection.

 

[Bongo]

A good format is "Subject of the Thread: Obscure Reference, Sassy Quote, or Excruciating Pun"

Edit: without having the words "Talking About" anywhere in it, obviously

 

[keurig]

Changed the Dragon's Dogma thread to "Dragon's Dogma - Like a Dangan".

My bad for not thinking these things through when making the thread, didn't intend to make the experience any worse for anyone, just wanted to join in on a silly pun trend.

 

[Positronic Brain]

A good format is "Subject of the Thread: Obscure Reference, Sassy Quote, or Excruciating Pun"

Edit: without having the words "Talking About" anywhere in it, obviously

Is this an official endorsement for the Oxford comma?

 

[Issun]

I feel like my thread titles reference enough of the game/series's content that someone who would want to talk about it would know that that thread was about that thing. Let me know if I'm wrong though.

 

[Torzelbaum]

I feel like my thread titles reference enough of the game/series's content that someone who would want to talk about it would know that that thread was about that thing. Let me know if I'm wrong though.

OK but what if someone isn't familiar with the game / series then how will they find the thread?

 

[Sprite]

I feel like my thread titles reference enough of the game/series's content that someone who would want to talk about it would know that that thread was about that thing. Let me know if I'm wrong though.

“This Guy Are Knock You All Down” is a fun portmanteau reference but definitely obscures what the thread is about for me every time I see it, and I know those games intimately. I don’t think the gag would lose anything by putting it after “The Ultimate Final Fantasy Thread” rather than before.

 

[Bongo]

Is this an official endorsement for the Oxford comma?

In exchange for agreeing to be technical administrator of the forums, my condition was that I be excused from all moderating duties. My opinions do not reflect forums policy. My untiring crusade to promote the Oxford comma is a strictly personal matter.

 

[Gaer]

Is this an official endorsement for the Oxford comma?

It may be Bongo's personal crusade, but we've exchanged Percy for the Oxford Comma as TT's mascot.


I'll be watching...

 

[Destil]

I will once again go on the record of always hating "dargon" in the context of something like "Dragon Quest" because it breaks search (if it's part of joke text it's fine).

Game Name - <joke goes here> is very much my preferred format.

 

[DANoWAR]

Game Name - <joke goes here> is very much my preferred format.

+1

 

[Patrick]

Game Name - <joke goes here> is very much my preferred format.

+1

I'm nodding along with all of this.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Game Name - <joke goes here> is very much my preferred format.

No strong feelings but for the most part willing to acquiesce to this.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Definitely game name first. I kinda hate joke titles for threads, mostly because they can make it a pain to scan for thread games.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

It may be Bongo's personal crusade, but we've exchanged Percy for the Oxford Comma as TT's mascot.


I'll be watching...

This personally thrills me.

Well, besides that last part.

Assuming that making the Oxford comma the new mascot isn't serious (I'm on board if it is, but something tells me it isn't), then I nominate Mac Tonight as our new mascot:

Also, glad to hear titles can be changed, I remember having some trouble with a few that used outdated terminology for the subject matter ("Durango" comes to mind, though I forget what problem I had).

 

[Peklo]

You don't want to invoke Mac Tonight in any modern context, especially on the Internet: the character has been co-opted as a racist idol in ways that can't be walked back because that's been its primary cultural relevance for the past 15 years or so.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I hate it when racists co-opt things.

furthermore, I also hate it when they do just about anything else, but that’s less relevant to the conversation.

 

[Violentvixen]

The actual game title (no joke misspellings, please) in the thread title would be ideal. There were so many times on the old forum where a game that came out years ago would go on sale and I'd try to find a thread about it by searching titles and nothing would come up. Then I'd waste a ton of time searching by post and digging around until I found a bunch of posts under a title I didn't understand since I hadn't played the game yet.

You don't want to invoke Mac Tonight in any modern context, especially on the Internet: the character has been co-opted as a racist idol in ways that can't be walked back because that's been its primary cultural relevance for the past 15 years or so.

I wasn't aware of this and am baffled. I want to look it up but am probably happier just knowing not to reference the character.

 

[Issun]

You don't want to invoke Mac Tonight in any modern context, especially on the Internet: the character has been co-opted as a racist idol in ways that can't be walked back because that's been its primary cultural relevance for the past 15 years or so.

This is one racist co-opting I had not heard of. I kind of want to know but also really don't.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Yeah, this one is news to me. But yeah, looking up on wikipedia " Moon Man is an unofficial parody of Mac Tonight in which the character is depicted as advocating for racism, white supremacy, antisemitism, neo-Nazism, terrorism, race war and genocide. ".

BTW, is there a way to copy and paste as plain text?

 

[conchobhar]

BTW, is there a way to copy and paste as plain text?

Shift + Option + Command + V on Mac and Control + Shift + V on Windows paste without formatting. Or you can just use the eraser in the top left of the reply window to remove the formatting.

 

[madhair60]

Ooh! Can I tag on a complaint about the fact that while it's all well and good to say "make new threads" (and I applaud it), the games forum is already full of megathreads? How about instead of a beat-em-up thread (not singling you out Octo, just the first one I saw), we just... make a thread for the beat-em-up we want to talk about?

From experience, the absolute peak of forum stagnation is going on the first page and seeing the same threads every day, over and over and over again.

I mean, I'm not mad, I don't care if that's how we want to do things, I just feel like there's a disparity between "make new threads!" and the number of catch-alls that have already sprung up.

 

[Sprite]

I get your complaint, though it's odd that you posted about a lack of threads in an unrelated thread, rather than making a thread.

There actually is a thread discussing the issue you're talking about, but its title is a little confusing. I thought it was about Pokemon at first.

(I really like the megathreads, myself)

 

[madhair60]

I get your complaint, though it's odd that you posted about a lack of threads in an unrelated thread, rather than making a thread.

Hahaha. That's... yeah. You're right. That is a bit self-defeating.