It's basic admin, guys. By asking me to PM everyone about spelling fixes, you're essentially asking me to help you admin, but in a silly, inefficient manner when you have 5-6 mods at least. PM'ing about spelling errors has never worked well for me in the past. Some people have terrible reactions in private that they would never express in a thread or in public, especially since I wouldn't even have any support and it would be my name on the line. I think mods should just perform the service and not bug the user about it (in thread titles only, mind you).
We shouldn't edit the content of posts, agreed (and I never suggested that). However, thread *titles* are fair game for moderation, unless you plan to let users dictate how good your site looks with the occasional careless title, missing punctuation, spelling errors, and vague descriptions which don't reveal the post content. If the spelling error was an accident, you're doing the person (and the site) a favor. If the person intended to misspell, that's not someone you need to worry about upsetting. If the person simply wasn't clear with their title and how it relates to their post, you're doing *everyone* a favor by making the thread title clear (examples below).
There's also search engines and the search function on this site to be considered. If I search posts, I don't want a bunch of thread titles named 'HELPP!!!!' or other unhelpful titles, and this is affected by spelling as well. Consider Google page ranks....if the admin ever installs the 'Pretty URL' mod, Google can pick up nice URLs from post titles as search hits. If that title is 'Siser Easy Weed' or something, this site will attract more users who may have typed that into Google if it shows up on this site. If the title is left as HEELLLPPPPP!! This doesn't help search engines at all since it's generic and not specific to Vinyl Forum. I understand post bodies count too, but the reason the 'Pretty URL' mod matters is for page relevance related to searches.
I've recently changed my smart car SMF forum to use the Pretty URL mod at
www.smartforums.info. Go ahead, click around and look at the URL's at the top and see that they're human readable. In a very real way, titles DO matter, and correctly-spelled titles matter too since most people are going to be searching with correctly-spelled words.
If I create a new thread simply titled, 'HELP!!!!!!!!!'. How does that look? What if 50 people do that?
More examples:
VinylGuy: HEEEELPPPPP!!! (alarming, yet vague. Could be anything. Readers waste time clicking through).VinylGirl: Hai guyz, wutz the write wai to set my vinill on the cuter? (gawd-awful spelling with twitter-speak)VinylGuy: A funny thing happened to mycutter tooday....(vague, spacing error)VinylGirl: ZOMG HAAAAAAYYYY GUYZZZZ Vinyl forum woooooots. (sloppy, spammy)VinylGuy: I got a ? (vague, change question-mark to a word)Fixed titles:
VinylGuy: Help! (Siser Easy-Weed Issues)VinylGirl: Hey guys, what's the right way to set my vinyl on the cutter? (Greeting left intact).VinylGuy: Funny thing happened to my cutter today (LCD issues).
VinylGirl: Introduction and new-user questions.
VinylGuy: I've got a question (setting up my LP24).Do you see what I am getting at? A diligent moderator should read the post, see that the person needs help with rename the title accordingly, retaining the feel of the title. This way, viewers don't waste time wondering what 'HELP!!!!!!!' is about and can more efficiently navigate your site. You're not just making things more clear and neat, you're making the site better for *everyone* who sees this title later and helping improve search results too. Consider the importance of this as the site grows. Think about the gains from doing nothing to thread titles and the gains from making them as clear, concise and informative as they can be (with proper spelling).
If someone doesn't perform this task, the site can get very sloppy-looking, especially as it gets bigger. It doesn't have to be all or nothing, you know. What I mean is, you don't have to totally abandon spell-checking titles just because a user continues making typos in his/her posts, because titles are how you *get* to posts to begin with. Titles are, in part, how you navigate the site. All of us make typos, does that mean we should never strive to avoid them, just because they invariably happen?
Bill, I may be the only one 'complaining' as you put it, but I consider it a valid, logically-supported suggestion that I've gone to great lengths to explain. This isn't even my site, I am a mere user. I am simply trying to make our little vinyl site better, and I think I've shown why my suggestions would be objectively better for the site.
Moderators *should* care about the appearance of their site (and their work) in the interest of professionalism. We are in the vinyl business, and often, in the word business as a result. It behooves us to care about words not only in our work but on the site, don't you think? You can defend errors all you want with obtuse arguments about artistic expression, but wrong is wrong. Sloppy is sloppy. Mods just have to make a choice whether to allow user sloppiness or not in thread titles, which this thread is about. Ideally, the mod doing this likes it and has a mastery of language. Some mods here struggle with spelling, and they wouldn't be good candidates for this type of upkeep. (You know who you are).
Also, being the only one 'complaining' doesn't invalidate my position, or detract from it in the slightest. This is an intensely poor argument. The most celebrated scientists in the world are those who discover things nobody else knew about prior, often, proving everyone else wrong.....that's everyone from Euripides, Galileo, Ben Franklin, Edison to Einstein and many others. I'm not saying this is as important as all that or that I am an Einstein or Galileo, but I think I've made a compelling case thus far, and merely claiming 'I am the only one complaining' holds no water. I could simply be the first one to notice and speak up, or I might have more intestinal fortitude than some. Perhaps, I care a little more about this type of thing (or all of the above).
Forums are like mini governments....you run them how you want, but you need members to have a forum (as you know from your experiences with USC). All I can do is offer suggestions. I see a LOT of mods here, and I have no idea how people got to be moderators, but I am surprised not one of you sees the logic in keeping the board as clean and easily-navigated as it can be. If so, please speak up.
I don't think anyone's made a good case yet for not fixing thread titles other than feeling like you're stepping on the user's toes. The downside of this attitude is the site will only look as good as the diligence (or lack of it) users employ when making new threads. What are the moderators for, if not to fix exactly these kinds of issues? I think we've all expended way more energy in this thread than the seconds it would take to just fix the thread titles which need it.
Thanks for listening.
