Most posts don’t have a post title at all. Some posts however, do, and it’s usually an exact copy of the thread title(See post 20 in this thread -She wanted a White child from a Sperm Bank - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board), which makes me think it’s the default setting for some software. What’s going on?
Perhaps some users are filling that out or copying it in there - the thread title is written near it, as well. I don’t use it - there are times I’ve copied the thread title into my post as I wanted to address it and the conversation had gotten a bit far afield.
Calling IvoryTowerDenizen.
The title in the post isn’t always the same.
If you type something in the title field that’s where it shows up. For the ones that are different, it’s fairly obvious that the user did that. For the ones where the title matches the thread title, it’s probably something like tapatalk automatically copying the thread title into the post.
Yes, I picked this example because the post was clearly not speaking to the thread title.
Hence the word ‘usually’ in my OP.
If that is the case, then it’s what I am curious about. Any users of tapatalk that can confirm?
Yes, I occasionally do that too. It seems to me that the fact that some people occasionally do this is a quite sufficient explanation of this fairly rare phenomenon.
If you use Quick Reply (which I bet most people do) you don’t get the Title box so for a lot of posts that’s blank.
If you click “Go Advanced,” there it is to fill out or not.
Aha. I searched for IvoryTowerDenizen’s posts to check if they’re usually like this, and found the following
Ever notice that one-post wonders almost always include a post title? I think it’s a conspiracy.
Yeah, I usually don’t even notice zombie threads… until I suddenly come to a post that has a title. Yup, joined-this-month necromancer.
Maybe Tapatalk makes it easier to find threads on the Straight Dope somehow?
Adding post titles is a common trait among spammers, most likely for an additional SEO boost. Not saying they’re the only ones doing that, but they do it far more than those that don’t.
When you post from Tapatalk it automatically puts the thread title in.
ETA: (now that I’ve read the thread…) Somehow I missed my call out here- and I usually stalk ATMB! Still drives me nuts it does that. And no, elmwood, I’m no spammer Would a good Buffalo girl like me spam?
I think a first time poster sees the “Title” field and thinks that, because it’s there, it’s something they’re “supposed” to enter. I think I did this when I was new and stopped when I realized the cool kids never used titles.
That makes a lot of sense.
Sometimes pasting in the thread title helps to provide context when the poster wants to offer an original answer without intending to respond to or elaborate on what the previous poster said.
I dunno, Buffalo SPAMburgers sound terrific. But that’s a topic for a different thread.