[edwardseco]

I am just a tad concerned about deleting threads unless they lack travel merit. The archive here is the site's major strength (and it keeps me from having to print out scads of material)..

[Merchant]

This is one of those things that's really only a problem on the Internet.

[Paagla Dashu]

Is there a way of changing the title of a thread? Can an ordinary member do it for threads started by him/her?

[-m2-]

PD: no, you cannot do it yourself but you can always PM a moderator and request a change.

[sadhuji]

the forum leaders/moderators could effect the changes by suggesting a different thread title to the initiator of the thread. the thread could also be grouped into a more suitable segment where its identity is not lost.

[steven_ber]

Again we have so many useless thread titles.

If you want answers from people who have done the same thing as you want to do, at least put something in the title that will attract their attention.

The thread starter is the biggest loser if they have a stupid thread title.

There are too many threads/posts a day for 98% of members to read, grab their attention by your thread title.

Help us to help you.

[sadhuji]

Originally Posted by DoDi

I think the problem is somewhat solved because of the popups that show the contents of the OP when you run a mouse over it......

yes dodi - you are right. the first few words of the thread should indicate what the thread is about. of course, there are the existing groupings that help people search for what he wants.

[mira4bai4]

Simple solution as I see it, there needs to be an extra field at the time of submitting that says "Thread Relates To:" with a drop down menu that reflects the forum headings/sub headings, unless this field is filled in the thread can't be submitted as an error message pops up.

[seventies'hippy]

like your new Avatar 4x4,,,,,,,,,,,

[beach]

We've to learn the 'How to make the most luring thread titles' from the troll makers, at least that's one good thing about a troll

[Geographer]

I think we have a serious issue of purpose and world view.

Most threads are a conversation, sometimes created out of a need for information, sometimes from a need to show off (this is not always a bad thing it is nice to see what people have done, blog-blog), sometimes just because the poster is bored sometimes to promote business etc etc

However the archive of threads is an information resource that we need to search to avoid asking the same question twice or maybe to get a deeper feel for an issue; however the problems related to a search are not so much the thread content rather the way that any thread might wander in any direction.

This issue is at the heart of the "new" semantic web systems being advocated by Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the web) these systems would trawl through information say the threads on Indiamike in an "intelligent" manner and select postings and sub threads that you might be interested in. On the basis of the semantics of the question rather than merely the words in the search, think thesaurus.

Thus I see the issue not one of thread naming rather of how the Knowledge base is searched so rather than improve thread naming the issue is the nature of search software within Indiamikes environmemt.

[mira4bai4]

seventies'hippy like your new Avatar 4x4

Thanks, I picked up the print in Jaipur and had it hanging on my wall for a while but felt that it needed preserving to HD in case the mildew got to it and it was lost. Then as I had just reformatted my HD and the only thing that I lost was a folder of Avatars it became my new one. The artist is D K Pathae by the look of it.

Another thought on the

Simple solution as I see it, there needs to be an extra field at the time of submitting that says "Thread Relates To:" with a drop down menu that reflects the forum headings/sub headings, unless this field is filled in the thread can't be submitted as an error message pops up.

is that as a thread meanders round a bit then with each post the field "Relates To" needs to be filled in before the post can be submitted, this will then help in any search as the post topic is easily identified and may prove useful to others. Think of it in the same way that the Photo Gallery works when uploading photos.

[mira4bai4]

Just another thought, the "Title" field at the top of the new post window, instead of it being an optional field it could become a mandatory field, then these titles can be automatically linked to the appropriate parent forum.

[steven_ber]

It's happening again.

Please remember that you are not the only person going to India this year, the information you ask for WILL be useful to others as well as you, but they will not be able to find it is you have a stupid thread title.

This can lead to lots of different threads asking the same questions.

[SHIMLA]

Apart from giving correct thread titles, its also necessary to start a thread in the correct forum.

A very recent case had me believe at first glance that the OP wanted to explore possibilities of lodging in a train !