Information for making thread titles more descriptive in the Publix forum

[pennywatcher]

As HCW grows and evolves, it becomes more important to make your thread titles very descriptive. In the past we've mostly left the thread titles alone, but Heidi and Julie have asked the mods to start modifying titles more actively. If your title gets modified, no offense is intended.

Better thread titles makes it easier for people to:

• find threads using the HCW search engine
• find threads using an external search engine
• determine applicable threads when reading via New Posts or the forum thread list.
• determine applicable threads when receiving the thread titles as a "feed" (no forum name is given in the feed)
• determine if a thread they are about to start is duplicate information
• identify obsolete threads
• merge duplicate threads (mods/supermods only)
• move threads to the Dead Deal forum without updating the title (mods/supermods only)

Some tips for good thread titles:

• Use the thread title to actually describe the deal or to summarize your question. "coupon question" and "question on this week's ad" are too vague for thread titles.
• Include the store name. I know it seems silly to mention Publix in the title when this is the Publix forum, but it helps when doing searches and when reading thread titles as part of a feed. It also allows the mods to move threads to the Dead Deal forum without updating the title.
• Include the product name.
• Include the start and end dates, if known.
• Include words/phrases like "clearance", "after coupon" and "after rebate" where applicable. Again, I know it seems silly to use clearance in the title when you've used the clearance icon or posted in a clearance-only forum, but folks reading the feed don't get the icons or the forum titles.
• Don't abbreviate important words. Abbreviations trip up the search engines. People don't search for "manu" or "q's". They search for "manufacturer" or "coupons".
• You don't have to write in a complete sentence. You can drop the small, common words that aren't searchable (prepositions, "the", etc). You can abbreviate the inconsequential words like "at" can be "@" and "with" can be "w/" since people will not be searching on those terms. Do not abbreviate significant words like "coupons".

[nrpeace17]

Hey folks, bumping this up for review.
I would like to ask a favor of you all. If you could include "Publix" somewhere in your post titles, that would be very helpful. It helps identify the forum to which the post belongs when people are reading new posts.

[mollysmom]

Will do

[nrpeace17]