when i find out what it is all about, the cryptic title has done its job well (because it got me interested and invited me to click on it).
Also this leads to the extremely middleaged man kind of coincidences like me wanting to check up how Outer Worlds is, only to land in Outer Wilds topic, ending up buying it because it sounded great, having an intense gaming experience I’ve not had for close to a decade/my GotY 2021, so idk, it worked for me as long as topics do not change titles too often, so kudos to y’all
FWIW I legit only clicked on that thread for the first time a week or two back when because of all the new split topics the axe was drowning in pinned threads I needed to trim down. I still didn’t read enough to know what it was actually about but glad that you are making a game now that I know about it
This is exactly why I always tell folks they should be shameless in letting other people know what they are doing, because there are so many people who don’t know even if you think they do!!
Anyway I’ve been working on my yacht lately, will be posting photos soon
I would say, and let me state that this is just my own personal opinion, if a number of people won’t have any idea what a thread is about because of the title… the title’s not good? Similarly, if either the thread starter or someone else feels the need to add a parenthetical for it to be understandable… also not good.
*exception for things like the recent “I should probably be banned from this forum” or whatever it was that was just about something untoward the poster did in grade school once, that’s quality misdirection
This isn’t to argue that everything should be “designated sega topic #4” but if whatever reference or clever notion behind the title is gonna evade a significant portion of the userbase there’s no real functional difference for them between just naming it a stream of unrelated words (“abyss function elevator ham sandwich (Archie comics discussion)”) or even just going with a string of random numbers or just banging my head on the keyboard and hitting enter afterwards (“fr,hjgrk,uhjdgvfrzdvf” does have a nice ring to it though).
I also think the notion that “it doesn’t matter what the thread titles are, people will memorize which each is associated with eventually” is a bit flawed. Maybe I’m odd but I don’t click on every single topic on SB, some stuff doesn’t seem particularly interesting to me. To use a personal example after I had my misadventures with Planescape: Torment and misunderstanding its combat someone @'d me towards the dungeons and dragon’s topic here and how I made a mistake like that when we have this topic here. I never clicked on it as I’ve got no idea who or what a Xanathar is but goblins are kinda boring! If I legit have no idea what a topic is about there is maybe a 50-50 chance I’ll click on it, and if I click on a thread and the most recent post I read is from like '18 or so I generally close it immediately and go “oh, I wasn’t reading that one for some reason”.
(random digression: I recall back in IC times Brandon was excited by an article someone sent him I think about Castlevania that he put on the main page that just had the if not purple then just constant over the top overwriting of everything. The article ended up getting a bit of a divisive reaction and when he asked why I think I just wrote “I’d much rather just know for sure what he’s trying to say than have all this flowerly language and not be sure” so… if anything I am consistent.)
So yeah, basically the thread titles can get too clever and it does have a knock on effect on how at least one user here (I’d assume more than just me but don’t want to speak for others) actually uses and experiences the forum. As someone who has been here since the IC days I feel comfortable saying that some of these recent ones are a good step or two more… “this” than they’ve generally been before, and when adding that we ended up with a dozen or so new mega threads all at once with all of them feeling the need to have very clever names… Rudie I believe used the term “hostile” while I’d go with obnoxious.
Now I don’t think anyone was trying to be mean or anything negative, but things do have a cumulative effect and the fact that at least a few people felt similarly about it at the same time would at least suggest that there is at least something to it, even if it ends up being a “I recognize why you folks feel this way but you’re just too much of a minority and everyone else likes it this way” deal.
Sorry this is long and after the fact, when I disappear for a bit the words in my head get longer and longer and this mainly just serves to get them out of said head. Sorry if I think your topic title is dumb, I’m sure you’re still wonderful people and I write dumb stuff too sometimes
While there’s no functional difference for those who don’t appreciate the title, the parenthetical compromise leaves open the possibility that someone is delighted by it or enjoys looking it up to solve the “puzzle.” That’s a feature and not a bug in my opinion, having learned about reflections in Unreal from vanity photos as well as countless other pieces of trivia and errata over the years. There’s something special about telling a joke you know only plays in this venue.
(Note: neither of the examples in question in this thread are mine and I got neither joke.)
Your point about functionality is well-observed and parentheticals either by the OP or added (as I did for AGDQ this week) should address it.
Of course, if a title is plainly offensive, even inadvertently as in the two recent examples, please flag the OP for staff to address.
IMO if you are reading new threads as they go up to decide if they are worth tracking or not, the amount of threads on here isn’t too bad to keep up with if you visit daily, so the title thing is a one-time inconvenience at best unless it is truly cringe
Where it screws you the most is if you are coming to the forum and look at a thread listing for the first time, because everything is inscrutable and there are more thread titles to figure out all at once than there ever will be once you are a regular. I also remember being hesitant to make my own threads because I couldn’t think of anything clever enough to fit in with the rest of the titles.
I understand wanting to preserve the tradition because it feels selectbuttony and having some inscrutability scares away the average rando if they aren’t willing to lurk for a while and put a minimum of work in to understand what exactly is going on here… I mostly like the vibe we have going on and if that is believed to be a critical element of keeping it that way, then maybe it should stay.
The names riffing on common Japanese game name components feel a little overdone though.
