7

I notice this title or similar variations quite often. Maybe nothing wrong with it, but shouldn't the asker try to be more specific?

Keeping it so generic might make the use of the search function more difficult. I mean, it would be harder to go back to such question for future reference, eventual duplicates etc.

In my experience, is is seldom the full sentence to be unclear. Most of the times it boils down to a specific point (grammar, vocabulary, etc). Wouldn't it be better to ask everyone to make an effort to pinpoint the problem and include it in the title?

Concise titles are good, but sometimes I feel it's also laziness. As I mentioned, I'm saying this mostly as it would help eventual future searches, other than making the title more straight to the point.

2
  • 2
    Related FAQ: How do I write a good title?
    – Andrew T.
    Nov 1, 2018 at 4:50
  • I've often thought about editing peoples titles to make them more descriptive, but I never have done because I worry that they'll get confused about where their question disappeared to. I think this is probably a ridiculous worry, but I'm not sure. Nov 7, 2018 at 18:58

1 Answer 1

4

To answer the question in your title:

No, it's not a good title.

I agree that question titles should be as clear as possible, and contain the whole primary question when possible. When it's not possible (e.g. explaining the issue would take several sentences), try to give the question a descriptive enough title that people can fairly easily distinguish it from similar questions.

As you point out, generic titles are bad because they make discovering the question - whether through the site or through search engines - harder. This means that people with the same question are less able to find it, as are experts who might know the answer to the question.

Questions should have clear, descriptive titles.

2
  • 1
    FWIW, I've sometimes gone in and edited the question title to make it something more obviously discoverable, and relevant to the actual question. Nov 13, 2018 at 22:47
  • 1
    @EiríkrÚtlendi: I usually do as well (though I'm mostly active on RPG.SE, not this one).
    – V2Blast
    Nov 14, 2018 at 0:10

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .