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Q: How should we fix the problem of bad question titles on ELL?

A: Basically, my approach consists of three major stages:

  1. Make a meta post and teach people how to write good titles. (Done)
  2. Edit bad titles and make them better.
  3. Ban some keywords in titles, or give a warning message to users that use them in their titles.

It's time to take a leap forward, towards stage 2; But we need your help. I hereby invite you, my friendly ELLer, to TCE.

ELL's Cabin and TCE special chatroom host you folks at 15:00 & 19:00 UTC, starting this Saturday.

Visit ELL's Cabin if you need further info.

Rules & recommendations:

  1. This is optional.
  2. You can take a look at the title guide if you ever wondered how to write a good one.
  3. Please meet the chatrooms during TCE so we'd be able to arrange the schedule more effectively. If you don't there's the risk that you and one of the editors will clash in one of the questions. We have so much work to do; we don't have much time to waste.
  4. Bring some snacks.
  5. Have fun.

Oh, and BTW, I'd love if you notify me in the comments that you're going to be present in the event.

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    LOL @ "Bring some snacks." I should note, though: ELL cannot be responsible for any damage due to beverages spilt on keyboards during the TCE. And, yes, "beverages" includes water. :-)
    – J.R. Mod
    Commented Sep 10, 2015 at 8:43
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    I think this is a great idea, except for the "ban some keywords in titles". I would rather clean up a title than put more burden on someone who may already be struggling to express themselves in English. I wonder if it would be possible to detect exact duplicate titles and show a warning with a link to the meta post on writing a good title.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Sep 10, 2015 at 11:35
  • @Colleen indeed banning is not the way. I was just saying something similar could be implemented. I myself favor a warning message when the system detects a "gramma*" or "correct" or "difference" in the title.
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Sep 10, 2015 at 11:43
  • Does it go without saying that everything else in a post (to one's ability) should be fixed at the same time? Or not? Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 15:16
  • @Peter That would be very kind of you if you edit anything else (specially tags) in the post. If we're going to bump the post, we should do the best we can.
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 15:32

2 Answers 2

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For reference, having taken part in this, my edits will have the following summary:

title cleanup event, see http://meta.ell.stackexchange.com/q/2632/1407 - title OK, body OK, tags OK

Obviously, the last three parts will only be present if that was the case.

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