(POLL) Should Threads Be Required to Have Specific Titles?

[aalamruad]

Just a quick suggestion for an improvement to SDN. I love the requirement in the "School X vs Y" subforum that thread titles must be specific (requiring school names instead of allowing titles like "Help me decide!"), and I think a similar rule should be applied to pre-allo in general. Threads like "Advice Please" or "What should I do?" or "Help!" do a disservice to SDN. Not only are titles like that mildly annoying (it's a bit frustrating to click on one of them only to find that the topic doesn't interest you at all), but more importantly, they prevent future SDNers from effectively searching SDN since a ton of great info is hidden away in threads with vague titles that'll never be found. Thoughts?

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[Astra]

Totally agree with you but I doubt its feasible. Too many people who are new to SDN and don't know the rules. Couple that with the higher traffic compared to School X vs Y, the mods might get overwhelmed.

Also, it should be a rule that if your post is more than one paragraph, you need to add a TL;DR at the end. Ain't nobody got time for reading short novels

 

[aalamruad]

Totally agree with you but I doubt its feasible. Too many people who are new to SDN and don't know the rules. Couple that with the higher traffic compared to School X vs Y, the mods might get overwhelmed.

Also, it should be a rule that if your post is more than one paragraph, you need to add a TL;DR at the end. Ain't nobody got time for reading short novels

I quickly skimmed through the last ~150 threads and it looks like there are around 4-5 super vague titles, so I don't think it would be too overwhelming for the mods to update titles like that with more descriptive ones!

 

[Toutie]

Do you seriously think people will do that? We can't even get people to put their WAMC threads in the WAMC forum.

edit: So you think the mods should do it? They already do so much here, it would be ridiculous for them to be spending their time categorizing posts.

 

[Lawpy]

I think an equally, if not more, important priority would be to significantly repair and improve the search function. It's pretty useless and outdated right now, and I usually search SDN via Google in form of "Topic of interest" + site:forums.studentdoctor.net (thanks to @Mad Jack for the suggestion).

 

[aalamruad]

Do you seriously think people will do that? We can't even get people to put their WAMC threads in the WAMC forum.

edit: So you think the mods should do it? They already do so much here, it would be ridiculous for them to be spending their time categorizing posts.

I really doubt it'd take much time for the mods to do

Or even better, simply add a feature that reminds people to create specific titles when they're about to post a new thread.

 

[aalamruad]

@Lucca @WedgeDawg would a policy like this be prohibitively inconvenient for the mods to enforce?

 

[Whyamionhere]

Gotta love the ones with titles like "AM I SCREWED?!?!" "RUINED MY CHANCES- HELP!!!!" and then I click on it and it's someone who got like a B in a class one time

 

[WedgeDawg]

@Lucca @WedgeDawg would a policy like this be prohibitively inconvenient for the mods to enforce?

I'm gonna say yes. Nothing wrong with encouraging descriptive titles, but enforcing it would be impossible.

 

[Astra]

Gotta love the ones with titles like "AM I SCREWED?!?!" "RUINED MY CHANCES- HELP!!!!" and then I click on it and it's someone who got like a B in a class one time

You don't understand. If you don't have a 4.0, your chances at med school are over. /s

 

[Lucca]

@Lucca @WedgeDawg would a policy like this be prohibitively inconvenient for the mods to enforce?

I personally dont think it is necessary.

 

[Lawpy]

Another thing: does anyone actually use SDN medical school rankings? What is the methodology behind them? Are they even relevant or can we simply get rid of them?

https://schools.studentdoctor.net/?reload=1&r=1489794894367