# Idea\* taken from literature for SDMB thread titles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 4, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439 "2004-07-04T00:49:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439/1 "2004-07-04T00:49:14Z")

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In literature it is common (I believe) to put a '\*'next to a word and then explain it in more detail at the bottom of the page. So it just occured to me that the same can be done for thread titles. If you lack room in the title to say all you want to say then put a star in there. book readers will understand.

Make use of the [sub] \*explanation here [/sub] code for the explanation.

[sub]\*too late for the thread that it would have counted in.[/sub]

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439/2 "2004-07-04T00:55:38Z")

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For example, in my thread [(Possible contender for most obscure game ever) anyone play ‘fairlight’ on the…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=264729) in Cafe Society. If I had replaced “(Possible contender for most obscure game ever)” with a star after “fairlight” and put “_Possible contender for most obscure game ever" as the end of page explanation I might have had room to finish the title thusly - "Anyone play ‘fairlight’_ on the Amstrad cpc 464?”

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439/3 "2004-07-04T19:37:38Z")

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Except that the purpose of the thread title is to act as a “hook” for the rest of the thread. You have to have enough in the title for a person to decide if they want to read it. I’m not going to open a thread just to read the title footnotes, if the title itself isn’t enough.

And if something isn’t needed in the title proper, why would it need to be a footnote? Or looking at it the other way, why wouldn’t the entire body of the OP be part of the footnote?

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**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439/4 "2004-07-04T20:33:18Z")

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That would be _really_ annoying IMO.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idea-taken-from-literature-for-sdmb-thread-titles/253439/5 "2004-07-05T20:47:51Z")

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I think the pop-up preview takes care of this pretty well. Do you disagree?