Please post enough content in your title to make it worthwhile to open the body!

[erronis]

I know this is mentioned frequently but for people that have lots of other things going on in their lives it is really nice to know what merits consideration.

It's been a long time since I was in grade school but I was taught that the subject line should contain as much of the content as useful.

But many posters like to use "teaser" lines which are just "Look at this!"

Maybe this works ok when the browser is looking at the home page which may include a bit more context.

It doesn't work if someone is trying to scan other one-line lists.

I won't click on teasers any more.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. My favorites are the ones like "Turn on CNN right now!"

or "Joe Schmoe is really stupid," or something else completely devoid of content - or videos that require you to watch them in order to find out what they're about. The David Packman videos are some of the worst.

[Skittles]

6. RIGHT FUGGING NOW is kind of a DU meme

but I think it should be in the body, with a more descriptive subject line

[erronis]

8. Packman and a couple of others are mainly of the video authors. A bit of content but not worth it.

I really hate to disrespect some well-intentioned poster and content but it is generally a waste of too much time for too little content.

[question everything]

25. Mine are one word like "this"

[spinbaby]

2. Also, give a clue what you're talking about

Hot stories seem to spawn context-free posts. Not everyone is up to date on the current hot story—they may have been off taking a nap or something. Tell us what you’re talking about.

[guillaumeb]

3. Recommended. eom

[CurtEastPoint]

4. "HERE! Click this link now!" Uh huh.

[stopdiggin]

5. agree 100%

If you can't be bothered with a sentence .. then you don't have anything terribly valuable to say.

YOU'RE WASTING EVERYBODY'S TIME!

[HipChick]

7. In the day of social media etc

It's a wishlist at best...

[erronis]

11. I'm sure many are mining the content of our posts - perhaps even DU

It's really not that hard in these days of natural-language-processing (NLP) to know if the post contains much relevance.

Twitter does it, fuckbase does it. All the commentary sections of major newspapers/blogs do it.

Anyway, it was just a wish....

[Jirel]

9. Also, mark [satire] in the headline.

Nothing dumber than posting the Onion or Borowitz Report with a real-sounding headline. Do people think others have nothing better to do than click on junk? If it was marked as satire, it might actually be worth reading for a laugh - if someone has time.

[erronis]

13. Totally agree. And many people here are apparently really good with injecting emojis/etc.

Sometimes those make a message a lot more understandable.

(I'm still learning how to put a "turd-blossom" our of those codes: 💩

[Disaffected]

14. + a googleplex n/t

[smirkymonkey]

18. You can usually tell if it's satire, though. Not always, but I would say 90% of the time.

Besides, I don't think satire is junk. Ridicule has always had it's place in delegitimizing corrupt regimes.

[wackadoo wabbit]

24. Definitely, this!

These days, alas, it really is difficult to tell what's satire and what's reality.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

10. KnR...you are so correct!

[TheBlackAdder]

12. There's an "If you don't need" one at the top right now. This is one of my clickbait peeves.

.

Most know that no one will click on their OP if they give a legitimate description.

So, to drive clicks, they write what's equivalent to boner pill email subject lines to get you to click on it.

.

[Croney]

15. The one I dislike most is THIS.

Just the word THIS in the subject line.

[Rorey]

16. I'm occasionally guilty of that in a response

Apologies.

I would never do it in an OP.

And I agree with the OP completely on this.

[JonAndKatePlusABird]

17. THIS

.

[erronis]

21. THIS +++

[question everything]

27. YES!

[appalachiablue]

32. there ought to be a law

[smirkymonkey]

19. Another thing that bothers me is when people just post a link in the body with no

headline or description of what it is about. At least post a few sentences or paragraphs so we can determine whether it is something worth opening.

[chriscan64]

20. I love a well crafted title.

I wind up reading stuff posted by kentuck because I'm drawn in by the headline. I usually don't do it knowingly, I realize when I get there. Plus the content is worth staying for.

[erronis]

22. And there are certain authors I know have good content behind a minimalist title. Still, please give

us more than a riff.

[chriscan64]

23. Not saying I only read clever titles

Lots of good content to find here. I prefer when the poster includes their own thoughts as opposed to "here's something from somewhere else on the internet' That said, if it's just an article and a good one, I'm all in.

[ibegurpard]

26. Good luck with that

It's always been a problem

[Baclava]

28. !!!

[JesterCS]

29. I agree.

Too many gotcha titles.

[Raine]

30. I agree

but some will continue to ignore that request no matter how many times they're asked they continue the same old way.

[raccoon]

31. THANK YOU. nt