Put the date of death in a title

About This Message Board
1

Lots of famous people are dying this week. Many of them are getting threads.

One of them turned up next to a thread titled The Thrill Is Gone - B.B. King Dead at 89 in 2015.

I didn’t open it to see if the OP added the date or a mod did later. Either way, it’s a good model. Many death threads get reopened at a later time. Most of them are about people famous enough to warrant a thread but not famous enough that the date of death is remembered. So a reopened old thread startles.

Could the mods make a point out of adding death dates to these thread titles so that they don’t all need to be reported. And can I ask people who post these threads to put in the date in the first place? I don’t think this needs to be a Rule, but if it can get to be automatic habit everybody wins.

2

I would lump this in with one of my own pet peeves: failure to use descriptive thread titles. I do think (and thank) the mods do a good job adding an [RIP] or similar to death threads.

Worse are intentionally dippy, clickbaity, cringingly unfunny titles. For example, when it’s Jimmy Carter’s time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a thread like ‘Beer Baron Billy’s Brother Bites the Big Bucket.’

3

I’ll join in requesting “Singer,” “Actor,” “Former Congressman,” etc., in the title in addition to the names. Most are unknown to me, and depending on the description, I might want to have a look.

4

For Actors & Singers they are already tagged with Music or the like. So I don’t think much needs to be done there. If you click #celebrity-death you see the ones I and others have tagged. I almost always add Music or Books where appropriate. With Actors it is more hit or miss. Sports stars also usually get a tag for their sport.

For politicians, they’re not in the Cafe and probably in P&E. If posters added Former congressman, Mayor, etc. it would be nice.

@Exapno_Mapcase, the date is a great idea. I do wish more OPs would do such. I’ll try to start adding it going forward.

One trick that will help for Computer users. Hovering over the Activity Column entry shows the date of the first post and most recent post. But that doesn’t help phone/pad users.

5

It would be handy if the “insert date / time” button worked in the title
field of a new post, so you could add the date with 2 clicks.

6

Now I’m thinking about future deaths. For instance, you could have

RIP Tom Selleck May 25th 2034.

A mod could always correct it later if it turns out to be inaccurate.

7

We’ve been getting into this habit with breaking news threads. And a celebrity death thread is, after all, a sort of breaking news. I wouldn’t make it a rule, but it does sound like a good Best Practice.

8

The obnoxious example you give still reluctantly gives just enough jokey bullshit info to offer clues as to what the OP is on about.

But too many Dopers OPs starting a Carter obit would use a thread title like, “Well, He Died Today” or, “This Death Makes Me Sad” or, “Poor Roselyn”.

It’s usually the same folks who throw up random YouTube links with absolutely no context given; often, there are no words at all.

9

I would expect someone who makes a habit of that to get moderated. I’ve seen mods note people for doing that too much. Thread titles need to have enough of a description that a reader knows what it’s about.

10

I’d be happy to see it as a rule, or have mods add a date (but they’re busy enough).

See, I may have been fooled by an older thread, and immediately texted a friend “Did you hear? RIP Joe Shlobotnik. Say it ain’t so, Joe…”, only to get a snarky "Oh, did he die again? Or have you not read any news in the last five years?