# Suggestion of Junior Moderating vs Request to Members **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 8, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672 "2021-05-08T17:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/41 "2021-05-18T03:07:18Z")
> [@codinghorror](#): > > Having a bunch of duplicate titles isn’t just bad for you, it’s bad for SEO, it’s bad for everyone else who wants to find, well… anything. Not really. For example, there are sometimes GQ questions attempting to identify some unknown thing. “What is this object?” is a perfectly valid title even if someone else used that title [in 2018](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-object/815366) and [in 2015](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-object/723886). There is no reasonable reason to prevent it being used again in 2021. Nothing is gained by forcing them to say “Wh4t is this object?” or “What is this object that I can’t identify that has photos in the post?” or some other superfluous permutation. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/42 "2021-05-18T03:13:15Z")
Maybe not the best example. Even there “What is this Object?” would be better as “What is this _adjective_ object?” Think _rusty_, or _red_ or _large cylindrical_ ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/43 "2021-05-18T03:24:27Z")
How does that make a thread about an unidentifiable object more clear? Perhaps “What is this tool?” or “What is this rock?” would help, but providing a minimal description about an unknown object wouldn’t. Who do you expect to look at the thread titled “What is this red object?”, an expert in all things red? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/44 "2021-05-18T03:25:30Z")
OK, go with your examples. They’re better. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/45 "2021-05-18T04:23:48Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > The URL pattern, FWIW, appears to be [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/{thread-name}/{thread-id}/{optionally-post-number}](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/%7Bthread-name%7D/%7Bthread-id%7D/%7Boptionally-post-number%7D). So even if the thread name were non-unique, the thread ID would be. Ergo, URL uniqueness doesn’t require unique thread names nor the workaround you propose. Perhaps few have noticed, but this is already exactly how URL’s work here in Discourse. The server finds the right thread solely by the thread-id part of the URL, essentially ignoring the {thread-name} part. For example, the URL of this thread is: - https:// boards.straightdope. com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672 But change that to: - https:// boards.straightdope. com/t/abcdefg/941672 or anything else in the thread-name part, and you still get to the same thread. This is necessary because a thread title can be changed, and when that happens, the thread’s URL changes too. But existing links to the thread by its old URL still work. (ETA: I broke the links in the URLs as shown above to force Discourse to show the URLs as URLs and not display their thread titles instead.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/46 "2021-05-18T20:24:12Z")
See, this is the right way to do it. And I would like the Mods to actually say (again) that this sort of thing is Okay. The moderation has gotten kinda random recently. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/47 "2021-05-19T04:43:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > an expert in all things red? Redology is a real thing, but it refers to study of the classic Chinese novel _Red Chamber_, and not to the study of red. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/48 "2021-05-19T17:24:50Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > there are sometimes GQ questions attempting to identify some unknown thing. “What is this object?” is a perfectly valid title Sure, it’s valid at the [gq.com](http://gq.com) domain. Point acknowledged. But 25 different “what is this object” topics _here_ is not a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/49 "2021-05-19T17:32:03Z")
> [@codinghorror](#): > > Having a bunch of duplicate titles isn’t just bad for you, it’s bad for SEO, it’s bad for everyone else who wants to find, well… anything. This is just all-around wrong. Duplicate titles are not bad for me at all. And your other two points contradict each other. SEO is all about people finding techniques to put their garbage results above useful results by gaming Google’s (and others’) algorithms. Me being able to find “well… anything” is easier done in a world without SEO. If what you really meant was that duplicate titles would complicate searching, you would need to deal with how trivially worked around the current solution is. But honestly, you’d be better off studying how people search for the threads they’re looking for, and what leads to failure. This is just a solution in search of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/50 "2021-05-19T17:32:57Z")
> [@codinghorror](#): > > But 25 different “what is this object” topics _here_ is not a good idea. (Ignoring what _I hope_ was meant to be a joke.) Even if those 25 posts are spread over 20+ years? Where you have to work to make sure a title has never been used anywhere on this site at any time in its history? I fundamentally disagree. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/51 "2021-05-19T17:33:30Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > you would need to deal with how trivially worked around the current solution is That’s fine… it’s also possible to post an empty post here using all manner of unicode and HTML trickery. The general idea is to make it difficult (but not impossible) to do undesirable things, while at the same time making it very very _very_ easy to do desirable things. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/52 "2021-05-19T17:35:12Z")
But you didn’t do that. If I ran into the duplicate title warning, I’d just throw a 1 at the end of it and be done with it. That’s the easiest thing to do. On a more meta-point, you might try listening to your customers - you know, the people actually using your product - when they contradict your intuition. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/53 "2021-05-19T17:37:39Z")
I am definitely listening, but at an aggregate level across dozens to hundreds of sites. Each site has its own… shall we say… _flavor_. And there’s a few things that just aren’t in our DNA, like pagination, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/54 "2021-05-19T17:37:49Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > On a more meta-point, you might try listening to your customers - you know, the people actually using your product - when they contradict your intuition. Just because he doesn’t agree, that doesn’t mean he isn’t listening. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/55 "2021-05-19T17:39:23Z")
Sure, and in the post above yours, he claims he is. I’m skeptical, though. Replying with, effectively, “shut up, it’s good for you” doesn’t sound like listening to me. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/56 "2021-05-19T18:30:40Z")
> [@codinghorror](#): > > Sure, it’s valid at the [gq.com](http://gq.com) domain. Not sure if this was a joke on your part, but **Darren\_Garrison** was referring to the General Questions category which is run like a factual Q/A forum. Originally I believe GQ was a source of questions for Cecil to answer in his newspaper column, to complement letters written to the _Chicago Reader_. Unlike StackExchange we don’t put so much emphasis on making the question suitable for searches or being the prime source of knowledge, in my opinion we’re more about answering the specific question or problem and especially teaching people the facts. If Cecil wants to write an article let him worry about SEO. We do have a rule about descriptive thread titles, though. It is rule #1 in GQ: > 1. **Use descriptive thread titles.** Try to give your thread a title that summarizes what you are asking about. This makes it much easier for others to determine whether they have anything to contribute to the thread or want to read its contents. The rationale is as **TriPolar** explained in #43. A more specific title attracts answers from people with that specific expertise. Titles like “[How did my smartphone do this?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/942416)” or “[Question about HTML/CSS coding](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/942379)” are par for the course (you can [search](https://boards.straightdope.com/search?expanded=true&q=%23general-questions%20%22help%20me%22%20in%3Atitle) for more examples). Some examples of topics where moderators have stepped in to make the topic title more descriptive (they will put their change in brackets): > [@Another it's 2020 Question \[Why are dentists still using painful novocaine shots!?\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/922935/6): > > Moderator Note Thread title edited to more clearly indicate the topic. Please use descriptive thread titles. > [@\[When did people first connect sex and\] reproduction](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/851435/19): > > Title edited to indicate subject. Please use descriptive thread titles. Colibri General Questions Moderator > [@\[New World Order\] question \[about viable population size\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/517897/8): > > [Moderator note] Exactly what came to mind upon reading your original thread title.wink Please use descriptive thread titles. In particular, do not use acronyms unless they are very widely understood. I had no idea what you were trying to convey until I opened the thread. I have edited the thread title to indicate the subject. Colibri General Questions Moderator > [@Is this request \[about changing currency\] legit?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/812369/11): > > Thread title edited to indicate subject. Please use descriptive thread titles. Colibri General Questions Moderator ~Max ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/57 "2021-05-19T19:05:51Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > At least 4 of us Mods seem to think this thread title was not a problem. It wasn’t click bait and had just a little whimsy to it. Nothing bad. The mouseover shows what the thread is about in this case. No it doesn’t. > [@RitterSport](#): > > Not on a touchscreen computer, or at least not on my touchscreen computer. ++ Please don’t make any moderation decisions assuming that other’s might be able to read the mouseover. Mouseover is broken in Discourse, at least if your computer has a touchscreen. No one on a modern windows laptop can read the mouseover. For that matter, nor can anyone on an phone or a tablet, because there isn’t a good way to implement mouseover without a non-clicking pointing device. If I’d seen a report of the title, I probably would have edited it, fwiw. Probably to “A Corny Question [where’s the bread?]” ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/58 "2021-05-20T01:58:46Z")
Last I heard, mouseover is also theme specific. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > If I’d seen a report of the title, I probably would have edited it, fwiw. Probably to “A Corny Question [where’s the bread?]” And I’d have used even more specific language like [Retail availability of prepared corn bread]. That said, though, your edit would have probably been enough to allow me to steer clear: It’s a thread about cornbread & I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/59 "2021-05-20T04:30:28Z")
Yeah, i thought “where’s the bread?” would be more in keeping with the jocular nature of the original. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672/60 "2021-05-22T23:23:35Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > topics where moderators have stepped in to make the topic title more descriptive All those examples are excellent. The whole process of enforcing topic title uniqueness (per domain) makes it more likely that when you click on a link, you will kinda get what you expect. That’s a net benefit to the world. I’m a TL4 on a different site and I find editing topic titles to make them better and more descriptive is maybe 70% of the job. So many people do stuff like this… [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/BZbhNIS.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/BZbhNIS) (yes, we’re working on an official theme component that detects unformatted code or logs and nags before posting, as well) The world does not need 100 topics titled “keep getting error”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-of-junior-moderating-vs-request-to-members/941672.md?page=4)