November 20, 2003

6:16 PM

Re: Links, titles, and searches. [more]
posted by hama7 to feature requests at 6:16 PM (19 comments total)

For the sake of expediating the search process for previously posted links, I hereby submit a request for link names and titles to either approximate or duplicate the content of the link.

For example: rather than an oblique "The Amazing World of the Miraculous Manipulable Magical Oven-Roastable Magnificent Miniature" , one might just go for the more direct: Shrinky Dinks, if you get my drift.
posted by hama7 at 6:17 PM on November 20, 2003

I never search on keywords. I only search on URLs. But, then I post sites rather than topics. I doubt that you'll convince anybody to modify their posting styles, but good luck.
posted by willnot at 6:33 PM on November 20, 2003

what wendell said.
posted by quonsar at 6:59 PM on November 20, 2003

you didn't see my lips move...
posted by wendell at 8:07 PM on November 20, 2003

I also submit that we use some kind of XML structure to identify every post by weight, height and scent.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:59 PM on November 20, 2003

scent many not be a good idea.
posted by quonsar at 1:19 AM on November 21, 2003

I always suspected mefi posts lacked scents.
posted by nthdegx at 3:19 AM on November 21, 2003

everybody nose that by now, nthdegx.
posted by taz at 4:00 AM on November 21, 2003

Bad taz. No pancake.
posted by pizzasub at 7:08 AM on November 21, 2003

I never search on keywords. I only search on URLs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be saying "I don't check for the topic before posting, I just let the automatic URL-search work." Maybe I'm misunderstanding you - but as we've seen many times, a cool thing ("sites rather than topics") may be at a different URL, yet have already been posted more than once. The "You Think It's Moving But it's Not" stuff springs to mind.

What hama7 seems to be suggesting, and of course it's been suggested before, is that we strive to include keyword information in the main link and/or title so that those of us who take the time to check before posting will be able to see it in the regular MeFi search. I don't think it's a bad idea, and though I usually go for silly, rather than keyword-based, page titles, I do consciously attempt to include the relevant keywords in the FPP.
posted by soyjoy at 7:19 AM on November 21, 2003

Descriptive posts are a good thing (except in those rare cases where surprise is part of the desired effect). As for post titles, Matt has already said he likes oblique ones:

I like inventive titles that are either a summation of the post's subject matter, or a subtle joke. When I see them in an RSS reader, it takes 2 seconds to click on a non-obvious title to figure out what the person was talking about.

.... I'm sure editors in the newspaper industry have been debating about headlines for the past 100 years or more -- should they be blatantly obvious, or is there some room for creativity?

I click on links and read sites and don't feel strongly about wasting a few seconds time trying to figure something out, and enjoy imaginative turns of phrase and plays-on-words, while others are much more efficient and cry foul if they waste 30 seconds on something later to be found uninteresting... my RSS reader would be completely boring if all the titles were merely copies of the URL description.

posted by mathowie at 11:40 AM PST on November 21

posted by languagehat at 8:35 AM on November 21, 2003

Was that mathowie comment exactly one/two/three years ago, or has languagehat mastered time travel?
posted by wendell at 8:40 AM on November 21, 2003

With languagehat...all things are possible...
posted by dejah420 at 9:00 AM on November 21, 2003

Nononononono... We just got that religion thread off the MetaTalk front page. Let's not start another one...
posted by wendell at 9:02 AM on November 21, 2003

Voodoo.
posted by ginz at 9:08 AM on November 21, 2003

Languagehat loves the little children of the word.
posted by taz at 9:09 AM on November 21, 2003

So... wanna know who's gonna win the Super Bowl? I accept PayPal.
*begins mentally paying off mortgage early*
posted by languagehat at 11:25 AM on November 21, 2003

I've never used XML. Is it saucy?
posted by The God Complex at 3:28 PM on November 21, 2003

Request rescinded.
posted by hama7 at 4:14 PM on November 21, 2003