I added more descriptive titles to metafilter

February 9, 2006 1:09 PM

I added more descriptive titles to metafilter and ask mefi comment pages. Refresh your CSS to see them as they intended to look.
posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 1:09 PM (34 comments total)

Whoa, it's tripping me out.
posted by youarenothere at 1:13 PM on February 9, 2006

Can it be set to Verdana instead of Arial, so that it matches the rest of the text?
posted by Gator at 1:13 PM on February 9, 2006

I added this because in RSS, I keep seeing clever, descriptive titles (very rarely do people not use them or post a goofy joke in the title) and realized they could make some useful headlines which are a lot more important than the date something was posted.

So I made the titles prominent headlines and put the date/time stamp immediately below it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:14 PM on February 9, 2006

I like the difference in type and in size. This is a great idea - one of those things that I didn't know I wanted until I saw it, and then I thought...yeah!
posted by iconomy at 1:23 PM on February 9, 2006

I knew I wanted it. Yay, thanks.

But can't a joke be goofy and clever?
posted by If I Had An Anus at 1:25 PM on February 9, 2006

I like the Arial. Lately I've been finding that large non-bold Arial/Helvetica makes for good banner/headline type.
posted by brownpau at 1:29 PM on February 9, 2006

what iconomy said, great. thanks matt
posted by matteo at 1:39 PM on February 9, 2006

Are they grey and the text is white? I don't like that.
posted by smackfu at 1:43 PM on February 9, 2006

Also, unintended badness. Some people use the same text for the AskMe title and the front page question, and then put the body of their question in the more inside... so now they have two copies of the title.
posted by smackfu at 1:46 PM on February 9, 2006

You have been busy today - a pony, and a massive slew of double posts to delete.
posted by caddis at 1:47 PM on February 9, 2006

I don't like it. But that's purely idiosyncratic and I'll try to get used to it if y'all disagree. To me, the title is is the browser window title, and it's meant to be slightly off to the side, amusing, and the like. I don't use RSS feeds tho so I'm not enjoying the biggest benefit of the change..
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:50 PM on February 9, 2006

I don't have a particular hardon for Verdana specifically, or even sameness necessarily; I just don't like the way Arial looks on the screen, and I don't think it's a good fit with the rest of the text. I realize, however, that it won't kill me if that's the final word on it.

I do like the fact that the title is there, even though it does kinda take away from the "Easter Egg"-ness of the Title attribute that some of us have enjoyed in the past. It's a nice pony.
posted by Gator at 1:58 PM on February 9, 2006

cries out for a marquee tag.
*ahem* Looks good, Matt.
posted by boo_radley at 2:17 PM on February 9, 2006

I updated the question posting page to show off the titles on the page itself, so people can see what the headline looks like. I'll add it to mefi as well momentarily.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:44 PM on February 9, 2006

I believe the title should be an H1, not an H2.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:46 PM on February 9, 2006

Can it just be set to whichever font the user specifies for body text? Looks odd, otherwise.
posted by cmyk at 2:50 PM on February 9, 2006

Good point Kirk, I just changed it to H1's instead of H2.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:00 PM on February 9, 2006

I likes it! Thanks Matt.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:05 PM on February 9, 2006

Please also fix the CSS for Ask. h1 is not in the current stylesheet, but it's in the current HTML.
posted by majick at 3:35 PM on February 9, 2006

Ask Mefi in Safari looks ok for me. Just hold down the shift key, and press the reload button on your toolbar.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:47 PM on February 9, 2006

I love this. Thanks.
posted by Superfrankenstein at 3:52 PM on February 9, 2006

I'm getting Georgia withdrawal symptoms.
posted by chrismear at 4:47 PM on February 9, 2006

What does it mean to "refresh my CSS?" I'm using Firefox on XP.
posted by Wet Spot at 5:03 PM on February 9, 2006

hold shift down while you click the relaod button to force a refresh of everything, including the stylesheet.
posted by puke & cry at 5:19 PM on February 9, 2006

This is incredibly awkward. The titles feel out of place and almost as though there's been an error on the page. The titles also rarely flow with the post, normally being used for RSS feeds and such, and so it makes it seem abrupt and awkward.

Just very weird.
posted by xmutex at 6:03 PM on February 9, 2006

To be honest, I had seen them earlier and totally just automatically filtered them out in my head without even reading them thinking it was just a new location for a textad.
posted by juv3nal at 9:07 PM on February 9, 2006

Yeah, even after refreshing the stylesheet it doesn't look right — it disrupts the flow and makes it feel like there's a false start to the text. If people can't be arsed to look at their title bars once in a while, it's their loss.

If you're going to keep it, at least make the new text and the original text the same font. Having Arial and Verdana right next to each other is jarring at best.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:10 PM on February 9, 2006

The first one I noticed scared me.
posted by geekyguy at 9:16 PM on February 9, 2006

I'm with geekyguy. I'm still nervous because of that post.
posted by JZig at 11:06 PM on February 9, 2006

Another vote for liking the subtitles hidden at the top. It always feels good to catch a subtle or clever one, because you had to remember to look for it.
posted by dgaicun at 3:39 AM on February 10, 2006

Another vote against it here. Why is it Arial, anyway? At least make it customizable in the prefs, like the rest of the text is?

Pweeze? :)
posted by slater at 4:23 AM on February 10, 2006

This is a (currently) imperfect solution to a problem that needs to be solved: the uselessness of the titles in the RSS feed. It's been discussed before, but as long as the titles are hidden easter eggs on the page, people will use them the way dgaicun likes.
posted by Plutor at 5:06 AM on February 10, 2006

(Huh. I use Firefox, and I kinda liked the gargantuan fucking titles waythefuck over at the left margin. But I guess the more restrained-looking ones are cool too.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:23 AM on February 10, 2006

I don't like it. But that's purely idiosyncratic and I'll try to get used to it if y'all disagree. To me, the title is is the browser window title, and it's meant to be slightly off to the side, amusing, and the like.

I agree. I don't like it either. I find the titles distracting and see them as just one more place for someone to think that HAVE to be clever or "make a statement", post a snark, etc.
posted by Witty at 6:59 AM on February 10, 2006