A system that detects titles with just the word "HELP" and warn the OP?

[RockSolid1106]

I am talking about these kinds of titles:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it's literally endless!

(if you search for topics which include "HELP")

The titles which contain just "Help" or "Help me please" or "Help needed", "HELP URGENT" and similar stuff.

 

The Problem

They just don't provide any context about the issue(fairly obvious, duh). So, one has to click the topic, and then read the description to understand. Someone like me, just doesn't bother clicking on it.

On the other hand if the title describes the issue well, one can simply, based on the title, decide whether its something that he/she can answer. If not, just carry on.

 

What could be done:

Some filtering system could be implemented, which detects if the title contains just the word "Help" or something like that. If a title does contain, a warning could be displayed, like so:

 

 

 

Yes, I do know that this is a very small issue/suggestion, but it should help people get help better.

[Skiiwee29]

Most of the time these are new or newer people coming to the community asking for help in what they determine to be a desperate time. Having a system in place such as this would be a bad precedence and would not be a welcoming site to someone trying to get help and turn them away. Thats not what the community aspires to be. 

[HanZie82]

I would love this, i already dont click on 90% of the topics where the title says i need help.
This would make it so those people would have abetter chance.
(I mean if i already do it, how many others do too).

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, HanZie82 said:

I would love this, i already dont click on 90% of the topics where the title says i need help.
This would make it so those people would have abetter chance.
(I mean if i already do it, how many others do too).

Ironically, I'm pretty likely to click them. They're usually the people that don't know how to troubleshoot and it's usually something basic and easy to fix.

[HanZie82]

1 minute ago, IkeaGnome said:

Ironically, I'm pretty likely to click them. They're usually the people that don't know how to troubleshoot and it's usually something basic and easy to fix.

Ironicly i just posted in a topic called "I need help" before i responded in this one.

[WhitetailAni]

I'm all for it. Too many topics are just "I need help" "HELP!!!" "xxx thing isn't working HELP URGENT" and the like.

 

Perhaps the "hey, this title isn't very good" could be reworded to be less rude, though? The proposed text is very blunt, which I wouldn't mind at all, but most people on the Internet won't be able to take this.

[RockSolid1106]

2 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Perhaps the "hey, this title isn't very good" could be reworded to be less rude, though? The proposed text is very blunt, which I wouldn't mind at all, but most people on the Internet won't be able to take this.

Of course. That was something that I just made up while writing the post(I just inspect elemented the "Email Address" thingy in the Account Settings).

Spoiler

I am sure other people will have much better suggestions for text that is polite, but does the job, without turning people away.

 

Perhaps, a little banner could be implemented like the one in the Programming Subforum which says "Please use code tags"? It could also include some extra handy information like "Don't forget to include the specs of your PC"(although it is already in the "Read before posting guidelines").

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Beerzerker]

Have to admit it's kinda annoying when the entire thread title is in ALL CAPS with urgent, help, emergency and so on, containing plenty of !!!!'s for good measure too.
While it makes me want to cringe, I still take a peek at least in most cases.
 

[da na]

I would click on it to reprimand the person and solve their issue, unless they are begging for free stuff from Linus, then I just reprimand them and report their post.

[Levent]

Wish it was just titles that were the issue. People who tend to write HELP to the title dont exactly make it easier to help them inside the thread itself either. People dont even bother listing their system details, I wish there was some sort of system that would make it mandatory for users to fill their system details before posting in Troubleshooting instead.

[Master Disaster]

Honestly, a better solution might be to show a screen to new members on the creation of a new topic (people with low post counts) explaining how to title properly and what info is needed, a bit like the current tech news template. Perhaps it could only show in subforums that are generally used by people to ask for help and not discussion type subs.

16 hours ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Most of the time these are new or newer people coming to the community asking for help in what they determine to be a desperate time. Having a system in place such as this would be a bad precedence and would not be a welcoming site to someone trying to get help and turn them away. Thats not what the community aspires to be. 

Disagree, telling people what we need to offer them help is not unwelcoming and as many have pointed out, its in their best interest to give us as much info as possible since they're more likely to get help from the right people if the right info is there.

 

One of my favourite responses to the

 

"help!!"

"My gpu died?"

 

type topics is

 

"Put as much effort into your question as you would hope others would put into their response"

 

Sometimes info is so scant its literally impossible to help.

 

[akio123008]

I like this idea actually. It filters out quite a few bad titles given the list of variations of "help" it looks for is long enough.

 

I also like that it doesn't completely block anything, or punish the user, but just sends a friendly warning.

[HanZie82]

6 hours ago, Levent said:

Wish it was just titles that were the issue. People who tend to write HELP to the title dont exactly make it easier to help them inside the thread itself either. People dont even bother listing their system details, I wish there was some sort of system that would make it mandatory for users to fill their system details before posting in Troubleshooting instead.

This is so fucking true.

It can infuriate me, the unwillingness of people to put effort into their own problem.

"If you don't care why in the hell should we?!" Is what i wanna tell them, but then i remember the rules ignore it and move on.

I see topics die that way, isn't that a way to get people away from the forum even more?!

 

And since when is a LINUS forum to help ignorant people stay ignorant. I'm pretty damn sure thats not how he envisioned it.  

 

Don't tell poeple howto fix it, tell them how they can educate themselves to fix it. So next time instead of asking questions, they can go like hey this is what i tried and such, maybe works for you.

Sorry I'm ranting now, ill stop.

Edited June 1, 2021 by HanZie82
fixxed spelling errors and punctuation.

[RockSolid1106]

1 hour ago, HanZie82 said:

It can infuriate me, the unwillingness of people to put effort into their own problem.

Absolutely agreed. I have seen a ton of posts, posted by newbies with that being their first and last post ever on the Forum, because(maybe) they didn't enter the required info to help them, and turned away because they didn't have a response. All that prevented them from becoming yet another wonderful member of the forum, was information. I do think that such a system would help such new members get help better, and be another member who tries to help other members, and not just come for their issues.

 

Basically, "Help us to help you".

 

Just found another one of those posts, with the similar "I need HELP" title, and basically no information in the post:

And as a result, they get the worst possible answer right off the bat:

(I mean it wasn't the worst answer, but could have been posted after assessing the situation a bit)

 

And then the members HAVE TO ASK for the information; more pain to the one who's trying to help:

 

What I really do hope to see, is the very important guidelines like "Mention your PC specs", "Title your thread properly" and "Steps you have tried" and similar, be displayed as a template, like @Master Disastersuggested. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by LTTfan2006

[Stahlmann]

I normally do click on these titles, because often it's just people needing urgent help and they don't spend much time (if any at all) on the forum, so they don't know what's exactly "expected" of a title.  It doesn't hurt me spending 10 more seconds to read what it's about before deciding to ignore it or try to help.

[IkeaGnome]

6 hours ago, HanZie82 said:

Don't tell poeple howto fix it, tell them how they can educate themselves to fix it. So next time instead of asking questions, they can go like hey this is what i tried and such, maybe works for you.

I think a lot of this comes down to the people helping. I try to use screenshots of manuals, explain why and what not where I can. It into the teach a man how to fish saying. 

[Jtalk4456]

On 5/31/2021 at 11:53 AM, LTTfan2006 said:

I am talking about these kinds of titles:

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it's literally endless!

(if you search for topics which include "HELP")

The titles which contain just "Help" or "Help me please" or "Help needed", "HELP URGENT" and similar stuff.

 

The Problem

They just don't provide any context about the issue(fairly obvious, duh). So, one has to click the topic, and then read the description to understand. Someone like me, just doesn't bother clicking on it.

On the other hand if the title describes the issue well, one can simply, based on the title, decide whether its something that he/she can answer. If not, just carry on.

 

What could be done:

Some filtering system could be implemented, which detects if the title contains just the word "Help" or something like that. If a title does contain, a warning could be displayed, like so:

 

 

 

Yes, I do know that this is a very small issue/suggestion, but it should help people get help better.

 

On 5/31/2021 at 11:55 AM, Skiiwee29 said:

Most of the time these are new or newer people coming to the community asking for help in what they determine to be a desperate time. Having a system in place such as this would be a bad precedence and would not be a welcoming site to someone trying to get help and turn them away. Thats not what the community aspires to be. 

I can see both sides of this needing addressed. We don't want an unwelcoming forum, but we also don't enjoy content begging for help but providing no info to go on. As a middle ground, I think a template could be implemented. I can't remember where but I do remember one of the subforums having a template for new posts that just shows up when you click new topic, avoiding the issue of newbies not reading the "read before you post" thread.

Example: 

 

Title: Breifly describe the hardware/software involved and the behavior/symptom
Body:
OS: Windows/Mac/Linus (Version if you know it)

Parts List if applicable:

Other Software if applicable: 

What led up to the issue: (anything you were doing that might have caused the issue/anything new you did)

More detail on the issue: (What you are experiencing, how often, what conditions do you see it, etc)

What troubleshooting have you tried/what were the results?: 

 

As for the title issue, I think just "Help" in the title is not the issue. The issue is lack of content in the body. If the title is not descriptive, but then the body is filled with details, who cares about the title? That only affects some people who will avoid the topic for that title. filtering by the title will undoubtedly filter out well bodied threads with simple titles. Also brining back to self consequence, it will not affect us as the helpers seeing the topic. It might bring less results to the thread initially, but it will not affect us. the loss of extra help is punishment enough for their choice to put less thought in the title. No need to further punish them and prevent them from getting the few answers they might then get, imho.

Now as an alternative, It could be less rude and unwelcoming that whenever a "help" thread is made, the system alerts a mod who then goes and makes a polite comment saying something like " <Reply to topic>, also I suggest changing your title to include more info, many users tend to ignore titles without info"

 

[colonel_mortis]

I have thought about it before, and I do agree that something to prompt people to chose a better title would be valuable - as long as it's not too annoying, I don't think it would make the forum any less friendly (I would go with a slightly different wording to your example though - instead of "your title is bad, please change it", I would go for something more along the lines of "to make sure the right people see your topic, summarise the issue"). The main reason it hasn't happened yet is just that this hasn't been prioritised over other competing things. Some improvements for new members, such as this, is definitely getting towards the top of my list though, so it may happen at some point.

[Beerzerker]

17 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

 

I can see both sides of this needing addressed. We don't want an unwelcoming forum, but we also don't enjoy content begging for help but providing no info to go on. As a middle ground, I think a template could be implemented. I can't remember where but I do remember one of the subforums having a template for new posts that just shows up when you click new topic, avoiding the issue of newbies not reading the "read before you post" thread.

Example: 

 

Title: Breifly describe the hardware/software involved and the behavior/symptom
Body:
OS: Windows/Mac/Linus (Version if you know it)

Parts List if applicable:

Other Software if applicable: 

What led up to the issue: (anything you were doing that might have caused the issue/anything new you did)

More detail on the issue: (What you are experiencing, how often, what conditions do you see it, etc)

What troubleshooting have you tried/what were the results?: 

 

As for the title issue, I think just "Help" in the title is not the issue. The issue is lack of content in the body. If the title is not descriptive, but then the body is filled with details, who cares about the title? That only affects some people who will avoid the topic for that title. filtering by the title will undoubtedly filter out well bodied threads with simple titles. Also brining back to self consequence, it will not affect us as the helpers seeing the topic. It might bring less results to the thread initially, but it will not affect us. the loss of extra help is punishment enough for their choice to put less thought in the title. No need to further punish them and prevent them from getting the few answers they might then get, imho.

Now as an alternative, It could be less rude and unwelcoming that whenever a "help" thread is made, the system alerts a mod who then goes and makes a polite comment saying something like " <Reply to topic>, also I suggest changing your title to include more info, many users tend to ignore titles without info"

 

I believe this is one of the main things about it, as in how it's interpreted.
For some "Briefly" means just that, to simply say what the problem is with nothing else included, others however will get it.

I mean you do get actual forum "Newbies" at times and that's the only catch here, however to suggest/say what would be helpful to the poster (And us) is not a bad idea, in fact it should be very helpful but only if they follow through on their part.
I can suggest to also remind them only they are "There" personally to see what's actually going on with it, as in eyes on the situation. It's something I've mentioned a few times myself and (so far) it's worked to get the required info needed to carry on.

[mikeyw64]

do you mean something like this ?

[Moonzy]

On 6/1/2021 at 4:48 PM, Master Disaster said:

its in their best interest to give us as much info as possible since they're more likely to get help from the right people if the right info is there.

sometimes u don't know what you don't know about, which is probably the case for truly clueless people

so it may require asking for relevant info when trying to help

 

but i do agree that requesting system info in troubleshooting threads should help speed up the progress by 1 reply at least

but not every troubleshooting issue requires full system info, so there's also that