Thread title amendments - by others, not the OP

I hadnt realised that it was possible for folk other than the OP to amend a thread title but it appears so. Is it possible to disable that facility (except for moderators)? Seems to me that it could lead to trolling mischief - not that I’m suggesting that’s what happening on this thread -

https://www.hungryonion.org/t/lasagna-stop-editing-the-title-catholiver-it-is-sfba-norcal-unless-explicitly-specified-otherwise/4860

I’m guessing there have been scores of times that someone other than the OP has added the location to the title. As has been said when you’re on the main page and see “Lasagna” as this was originally titled, my first thought was Cooking. Posters sometimes don’t understand that putting it on the correct area/page/region/whatever doesn’t make that show up unless the title reflects that. I think it’s fine and dandy to not allow it…that’s simply not how it’s been done all these months. One poster in particular is quite helpful in doing this and I thought it was a good thing seeing her do it.

I hope the title stays. It isn’t rude. just my 2 cents as a user if this forum as well.

Well it seems the whole thread was removed. That’s a shame.

Actually it’s a good thing. This thread can deal with should it or even can it be changed. And the OP can repost about lasagna as there were NO replies to what s/he was trying to elicit.

Where doesn’t that show up?

On the home page it would appear in the regions section

On the Latest page you would see the region in the second column

On my phone I see the region under the post title

If your post applies to the entire region to which it was posted - then isn’t it redundant to post the entire region name in the title? And wouldn’t it be wrong to limit the breadth of the region by artificially making it about only one specific part of the region in the title?

Given the situation the title was fine.

I was partly mistaken. It shows up under Regions but not anything other than that. For instance right now there’s one about “Boozy milkshakes…” Turns out it (also) is SFBA but it could be anywhere on the planet. Adding just that quick bit allows people to be a bit discriminating on what they click on. I got corrected/edited a number of times before I caught on. And was happy I did.

So are you suggesting that the ENTIRE region’s name appear in EVERY title? That seems unwarranted. It also seems unnecessarily limiting to include one city in the title to meet some requirement if your intent is to query the entire region.

It seem presumptive to edit someone else’s title, especially to reflect something that they didn’t intend.

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If you look under hungryonion.org you’ll see that most have an indicator that narrows it sufficiently.

As to whether it’s “preseumptive” or not it’s being going on since the beginning or almost the beginning and lots of people do it to be helpful. If it can be changed I frankly don’t give fuck!

Just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean you have to get so rude . . . . . . honestly, why participate in a chat forum if you can’t have a civil discord.

In the end, your editing resulted a perfectly valid and potentially interesting post being removed from the cite. That seems counterproductive to the site’s intent.

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But what if the post is for the actual region, not to be narrowed. Not all regions are narrow so why do the posts in them have to be narrowed . . . some regions are large and maybe should be narrowed but if you have a question for the entire “Asia Pacific” region why do you have to put a city in the title to meet some arbitrary reason and thereby narrow your post in a way that isn’t the intent of your post?

E.g. if your intent is to query the “Asia Pacific” region about their french fry eating habits. Can’t the post just say “What do you put on your fries?” No city/region reference necessary since you’re posting on the Asia Pacific board.

To edit that to “What do you put on your fries [Japan]?” would completely change the intent of the post.

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Not everyone has the ability to edit a title … frequent and “trusted” posters earn a badge that earns them
a more private/ elite level of poster where they have access to a lounge and the ability to edit a title… it is assumed these frequent posters understand rules/etiquette
I thought it a bit odd that someone other than the OP could do that … I suppose Sampson trusted that we could function with complete autonomy in certain areas.
I personally would never edit without first contacting the OP … but that is just me…I don’t judge anyone else unless their intent is to just stir the pot!

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I understand how he might - although I think he’d be wrong. I have seen enough malicious posting on various boards not to want to give trolls more ability to troll. And some regular posters on boards can troll along with the best of them.

As for the nature of titles, I suppose it depends on what board you’re posting to. If I post a restaurant review to the UK board, it seems sensible to include the town, otherwise how would people know where it was. But if I post a thread about, say, asparagus to the UK board, it seems silly to include “UK” in the title - as it’s been posted to the UK board - although I recall that when I did post about asparagus, someone did add “UK”. I had assumed that must have been Sampson (although now appreciate it could have been almost anyone) so kept my mouth shut - apart from adding to the thread that the silly addition of “UK” wasn’t me! However, it had pissed me off that someone (even if it had been Sampson) had altered what I had written without even the politeness of suggesting that I might like to amend the title. It is, quite simply, very rude to change someone’s posts.

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I’m clearly not being clear :slight_smile: From the main page, you’ll see that it’s in one of myriad regions…all over the world. You must not go to that page. If you go there now, here’s what you’ll see:

Except for the “boozy milkshake” one it’s narrowed by the author or someone else to get you in the nabe. I’m really not trying to be difficult and I wasn’t yesterday. I guess I should have written “SFBA/NorCal” but I assumed anyone reading the title would know what meant.

No pot stirring…outside the kitchen! I was trying to be helpful and doing what others have been doing all these months. I’m assuming (again) that we can’t edit the body of the post…but I don’t know that because I’d never do anything like that.

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I agree. It gives the impression that the change was made by the OP. It’s a much better idea to post to the thread and ask the OP to change the title.

No, I understood. I find that region section problematic for a number of reasons and only use it to navigate to regions.

There are plenty of titles in that “regions” area that have cities I don’t recognize (though maybe I know the region so might have something to add) or are duplicated in multiple parts of the world. For example, adding “Portland” to a title doesn’t let you know if you’re talking about Maine or Oregon, but certainly are helpful once you’ve navigated to a region.

In the example of this thread, I don’t think editing the title to narrow the scope of the posters intent was beneficial.

And I don’t mean to harp on this specific example (it is just the one that started the conversation), but as the site grows (and hopefully it does) I see this has an ongoing potential issue with the regions.

And I’ll just say again that I really don’t care, I don’t know if the software can’t be altered to remove the feature and - rest assured!!! - I’ll never try to be helpful and do THAT again. :slight_smile: I also seem to remember that I once posted to someone that they add a location to the title and perhaps that’s when I was told that I could do it. I guess I’m just not as proprietary as some. My posts are far from perfect and can almost always benefit from editing help.

Good. Especially if you were the one who tampered with my thread title. And, if not, then hopefully the person who did will read this and follow the good advice you’ve just given yourself.

Believe it or not, the only time I see your posts are on WFD. But if you posted something about asparagus in UK and didn’t put that in the title then it didn’t show up on the main page with that descriptor. Perhaps, if nothing else, this will show those who didn’t know that people actually want that info. @LindaWhit, do I remember that you’ve helped with this?

My guess is that may have been a Chowhound reference . . . . they were famous for asking for help about features and then just doing something completely different anyway.

But I agree - modifying titles has huge potential issues in general - especially if you haven’t suggested an edit to the OP so that the intent of the title can be worked out.

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