how important is the subject title in your discussion?
By murkie
@murkie (1103)
Philippines
June 22, 2011 8:00am CST
while browsing for discussions i could respond to, i can't help but notice those titles with consist only of a single word.
while some one-word titles maybe interesting enough, i think it would be better if the title could summarize the discussion itself. for what i know, one look a title should give you a hint what the article is all about. this applies to almost any type of literature - books, movies, blogs, short stories, novels, etc.
yes, i myself may have had discussions with "incomplete" titles. but i hope in the succeeding ones, i could formulate a title interesting enough that could make the reader read all the contents and may even make him/her leave a comment. 
as for the other discussions, whenever i see a minimal-word title, i tend to skip it altogether. i get tired too easily finding out what the discussion is all about. 
do you and/or would you give priority to your titles?
as for the other discussions, whenever i see a minimal-word title, i tend to skip it altogether. i get tired too easily finding out what the discussion is all about.
do you and/or would you give priority to your titles?6 responses
@inu1711 (5285)
• Romania
22 Jun 11
Hello Murkie,
I am a lousy discussion starter 
so I shouldn't speak about this subject.
I've noticed that the discussions which have the subject included in their title have a "small" problem: if you put a question in your discussion's title it is possible that other users will respond to that question without even reading the topic. I've seen this and not only once!
.
I don't know the recipe for the best title (if I knew, I would have more discussions started 
) so I'll let the successful discussion starters to write more.
so I shouldn't speak about this subject.
I've noticed that the discussions which have the subject included in their title have a "small" problem: if you put a question in your discussion's title it is possible that other users will respond to that question without even reading the topic. I've seen this and not only once!.
I don't know the recipe for the best title (if I knew, I would have more discussions started ) so I'll let the successful discussion starters to write more.2 people like this
@murkie (1103)
• Philippines
23 Jun 11
hello there, inu..
yup, that's right.. and yup, that's right.
when the title is a question, tendency is, the reader would skip to responding to that question rather than to the whole discussion. in this case, the title is really important, especially that we have readers who get easily bored with reading lenghty context.. so in order to catch some attention, the title must be able to, well, catch attention.
and of course, let's observe the successful discussion starters and try to learn how they do it so we could attract followers as well.
1 person likes this
hopefully i get to notice it.
@de_toya (2429)
• Indonesia
23 Jun 11
Yes, it is important. The subject title is part of our discussions which is read by other members. So, we have to choose the right subject title. Subject title must be the interesting one so other member will be interested and engaged to join the discussions. Subject title must not too long. It can contain two or three words but it must figure out whole of the discussion. If we just choose subject title which make others curious but it doesn't related with your discussion it will make the reader disappointed and perhaps won't respond to the discussion.
1 person likes this
@murkie (1103)
• Philippines
25 Jun 11
i, too, have been disappointed to some discussions whose titles and contents are two unrelated topics. the title may be eye-catching, but as you go through, it altogether a different story.
it is true that a discussion must have an interesting title. but the discussion itself must also be in line with the title. so much that the reader would comment on it.
but the fact remains, the title caught the reader's attention. 
@allknowing (130064)
• India
22 Jun 11
A short and crisp to the point title and a short and crisp topic is what will attract users although some users here create a topic to attract readers which has nothing to do with the topic and if the topic is long winded the responses go haywire as some do not read the topic but only go by the title.
@princess8881 (1630)
• South Korea
22 Jun 11
I think the title is very important..sometimes there are some people who are just answering without reading the whole topic... so I guess if we wanna get more responses we should think of a better title:P
1 person likes this
@moirai (2836)
• Philippines
23 Jun 11
Well, I'd go for somewhere in between. I mean... for me, a title should give the gist of the discussion. If it can be summed up in one word, then that's fine, although a few more words to make it more specific won't hurt. But I don't think the title really needs to be able to summarize the whole discussion. Sometimes this is impossible. There are discussions that ask several points about a topic. In any case, it is still important to read the whole topic/post and not just the title (this was the point of another discussion I saw here recently).
1 person likes this
@murkie (1103)
• Philippines
24 Jun 11
well, yes..
but in order to attract the reader in the first place, the title should be interesting enough, since it is likely that the title is the first part that would be read first.
you're right about the title not necessarily summarizing the discussion. but at least the gist of it could be understood just by reading the subject title.
@redvakaurvaki (4216)
• Indonesia
23 Jun 11
Title of discussion is very important because it give first information what discussion about.If the discussion have interisting title, it can attack many people to response even after they read the detail they may not interest :D
1 person likes this
@murkie (1103)
• Philippines
25 Jun 11
well, the title is one thing, and the content may be another. thing is, make the title interesting enough to keep the reader to go through the entire length of your discussion.
but there is no denying the fact that the title should somehow be relevant to the content.
