Topic title style guide

[theymos]

Moderators here typically don't require you to use good titles for topics, but I thought I'd post some guidelines for anyone wondering how best to write a title.

Include enough info in the title so that readers can mostly guess what your topic is about. Try to condense your topic's main idea into a few sentences. Ideally, people should be able to write useful, on-topic replies by just reading the title (though this sometimes isn't possible).

Terrible titles include:
- "A question"
- "I was wondering..."
- "Someone help me"
These titles are better, though still not great:
- "A question about Bitcoin-Qt"
- "Survey of the community"
- "I have a problem with the forum"
These titles are good:
- "Bitcoin-Qt takes too long to start. How can I speed it up?"
- "Poll: What is your gender?"
- "Whenever I try to send a PM, the forum gives me an error"

When asking a question, never use a title like "How to send BTC"; it makes the topic look like a guide on how to do something instead of a question about how to do it.

Some people like to put "tags" in the title within brackets. Like "[GLBSE] [ANNOUNCE] ASDF: Generic asset". I personally don't like this style. I prefer to include the tag info within the sentence, like "Announcing ASDF, a generic asset on GLBSE". When tags are really necessary, it may indicate that a new subforum should be created.

Use normal capitalization, not "newspaper capitalization". "Thread title style guide" instead of "Thread Title Style Guide". Capitalize the first letter of the title unless it a trademark like "eMachines".

Omit unimportant leading words. "Selling $100" instead of "I'm selling $100". Other than that, it's best to write a grammatically correct sentence if doing so does not make the title annoyingly long.

If the title is composed of only one sentence, don't include a period at the end. If it contains two or more sentences, put a period after each sentence, including the last. Questions must end with a question mark.

[myrkul]

I just have one question: Why is this not stickied?

[rjk]

I just have one question: Why is this not stickied?

Because the people that won't follow it tend to ignore stickies anyways. 

[D.H.]

I just have one question: Why is this not stickied?

Because the people that won't follow it tend to ignore stickies anyways.  

Yeah, good post theymos, but it won't help much I'm afraid. I'm sometimes amazed at how some people don't even follow the most obvious conventions. Like in the press forum where almost every post (except the stickies) is formatted as "YYYY-MM-DD Source - Article title", yet everyone once in a while someone pops in and uses a different format.

[dree12]

Use normal capitalization, not "newspaper capitalization". "Thread title style guide" instead of "Thread Title Style Guide". Capitalize the first letter of the title unless it a trademark like "eMachines".

Someone hasn't read a newspaper recently .

"Newspaper capitalization":


I think you mean "use newspaper capitalization".

[ShireSilver]

Some people like to put "tags" in the title within brackets. Like "[GLBSE] [ANNOUNCE] ASDF: Generic asset". I personally don't like this style. I prefer to include the tag info within the sentence, like "Announcing ASDF, a generic asset on GLBSE". When tags are really necessary, it may indicate that a new subforum should be created.

Personally, I find the bracket usage very helpful. As an investor that wants to keep up with recent news, scanning the "unread posts" list for "[GLBSE]" speeds things up. Bracket usage also helps me skip over threads that are just chatting.

[kuzetsa]

Some people like to put "tags" in the title within brackets. Like "[GLBSE] [ANNOUNCE] ASDF: Generic asset". I personally don't like this style. I prefer to include the tag info within the sentence, like "Announcing ASDF, a generic asset on GLBSE". When tags are really necessary, it may indicate that a new subforum should be created.

Personally, I find the bracket usage very helpful. As an investor that wants to keep up with recent news, scanning the "unread posts" list for "[GLBSE]" speeds things up. Bracket usage also helps me skip over threads that are just chatting.

Totally.

There are WAY too many securities, etc. to be able to easily find the one(s) I want (visually) ... the brackets are good. I like them too.

[BCB]

+1 to the brackets.  It really helps week out he chaff (pirate threads) when scanning the subjects

[S_Therapist]

Bumping so that people can know how to write a topic's title.
It's kinda useful for having a nice title so that people don't get bore after seeing your worst title.
Title is the first impression of a thread. If someone can't write a perfect title, his/her thread may not get enough attention.

[Gloverwrt]

Bumping so that people can know how to write a topic's title.

Saw your link to this post in another thread and it was a very helpful read, and would make the forum a lot friendlier and accessible if people adhere to it when heading their posts.
This is a post I believe should be stickied. For others to see, or I could help bump it every now and again 

[Marshall14]

Bumping so that people can know how to write a topic's title.
It's kinda useful for having a nice title so that people don't get bore after seeing your worst title.
Title is the first impression of a thread. If someone can't write a perfect title, his/her thread may not get enough attention.

This is actually a very helpful bumb
Far more better than the paid bounty Altcoin discussion bumpers

Titles of most happen to be very important,even though it doesn't judge the content,but it makes it attractive from the off,and more so appealing even before opening the thread..

Most users make topics that do not even concur with the content of their thread,and they need a rethink

[Direwolve735]

I think this guide is useful, first of all, for newbies (if, of course, they deign to read it), since it`s them who recently most often create new topics. Surely, in this way, they mostly try to get merits that annoys the higher rank forum members. But such an instruction gives them the opportunity to improve their skills and write more significant posts. I doubt that everyone will follow this guide, but at least someone will definitely listen to your advice.

[nngella]

You may also use colon ":" to designate a general topic (or a tag) and a specific topic to properly convey what you want to talk about.

example : Blockchain technology : an infographic on the use of blockchain technology in the medicine field.
or Bitcoin : Advantages and its usage.

[ellaloveee]

How to citate a topic? Is there a any rules in citing a topic? I just want to know because I don’t want to be tagged as plagiarizer. Thank you

[hd49728]

How to citate a topic? Is there a any rules in citing a topic? I just want to know because I don’t want to be tagged as plagiarizer. Thank you

The best is put the topic link inside the url brackets and include topic title, like this
Topic title style guide

Code:

[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102944.0]Topic title style guide[/url]

The worse is: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102944.0

Link is enough but it is better if you spend a few second to apply the first way as the second way does not show what is that topic is discussing about. It is applicable for forum topics or articles you read from any website and want to share on the forum.

[Steamtyme]

How to citate a topic? Is there a any rules in citing a topic? I just want to know because I don’t want to be tagged as plagiarizer. Thank you

Every post unless it comes from a locked topic has a "quote" button. If you use this it will allow you to reply in that same thread while quoting all the text. Apart from that you can still use the quote function and copy paste the contents to your new thread. You can trim down the quoted thread to it's relevant parts, and it will still link back to the original post.

Generally though unless someone has gone off topic you are best to respond in the original thread.

If it is a locked topic just post the URL when you select that post specifically, and then copy paste the post content for your thread.

Edit: I am curious as most new accounts don't ask these questions. Do you have an account that has already been banned for plagiarism? If so creating a new account and posting is ban evasion and will result in this account being banned as well.