That'll usually mean you should include the game, but not cuz it's a rule. Cuz without it, the title doesn't convey enough to someone who's only scanning the big bold stuff.
@Jaydles I think the way we see it is, "Give it a natural title. If it's not specific enough to figure out which game you're talking about, check out the tags right under it."
Which we obviously were. Like, clearly @Jaydles just hates us, and it wasn't just his post being worded in such a way that we misunderstood his meaning.
I've got a considerable amount of alien detritus lying around my base:
Some items, like the damaged UFO flight computer, are marked as useless and intended for sale without consequence.
However, I have no idea how many bits of Alien Alloys I'm likely to need. Or what a stack of alien corps...
@OrigamiRobot This is what @AshleyNunn and I were discussing before. Having the tag in the the excerpt is just a waste of space if users aren't expected to look at it.
@Jaydles: We've actually dealt with the "Game Name in title" issue for a very long time. Based on the experience we've had running the site, along with our discussions, we've come to the conclusions that the best way to convey the game is via the tag. Having the game name in the title is great, but only if it naturally fits there. Adding "In Starcaft 2" at the end of every post often makes titles feel less natural and concise. Natural and concise titles are key aspects of being a good title...
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...and using tags to convey the game name is one way we make concise and natural titles.
@Jaydles I guess what I'm ultimately saying is that I feel the rule that "Title should be stand-alone" is a little too narrow since it:
A) Ignores the fact tags exist and their placement in the site makes them prominent to any users looking through the question list
B) Assumes that "stand alone" is the *only* factor in what makes a good title. Like I said above, being concise and natural is *also* important.
With that said, I think a more sensible rule (and is basically what we follow on Arqade) is that "The Title and Tags should be enough to tell an expert if the question interests them."
We've actually dealt with the "Game Name in title" issue for a very long time. Based on the experience we've had running the site, along with our discussions, we've come to the conclusions that the best way to convey the game is via the tag. Having the game name in the title is great, but only if...
@Wipqozn I follow you, but it's essentially the titanic example. Sure it works fine once you train people, but it's essentially like saying, "The news headline should never say 'Shooting in Virginia'" because the location is already in the byline. It's smaller, but it's right there under the headline"
That's true, but it really raises the bar for new users to get hooked. You WANT to scare off those who don't know your topic, but requiring them to learn where the info not in the title is found, in a much smaller font, in order to get a feel for the questions is a lot trickier.
@Jaydles First off, your Titantic example is terrible. You Really need to get a new one. It's just hurting your case. "Sinks" doesn't make any sense. It's not proper english. Second, we're not saying "never have the game name in the title", that's just as bad as always having it in there. Finally, I think you're seriously underestimating new users (And also your site design). The tags are very prominent in the question list, and hard to miss. We have had a few occasions where users...
...missed the tag, but those occasions are rare. Most users quickly notice and realize what the tags are, since tags are used everywhere on the internet, and it's hard not to see the tags. It seems like you're lowering the bar waaaaaaay too far. No matter how low you set the bar, people will find a way to slip under it. You need to know when to stop lowering it, and I feel ignoring tags is lowering it a bit too far. @Jaydles
I don't think the SE team would've been claiming this without some kind of data to back them up. I don't know if it's an error in the reporting or an actual change in our site, but our share of direct traffic has been kind of exploding
@badp Grace has an answer on the highest voted questions on the site, with a horrifically out of context title, that question has more upvotes and comment upvotes on it than a large portion of our other questions combined
...which is a different way of saying that our share of traffic from Google's been decreasing - at least in percentage points; I haven't run the numbers in absolutes
@fbueckert yes, the google sauce is a red herring, and NOT a support of my point. In google, we add the top tag (or second one to avoid it being xbox). SEO is not relevant to my argumenr.
@Jaydles Wouldn't it be a collateral, though? The question tag is put there, and precisely there and noplace else because we were getting outranked by crawlers that did when we didn't.
If there's an underlying problem that's behind this reasoning, I'd prefer levelling with us, rather than going, "We're lowering the bar, this is how we'd like to to do it now."
I think the meta post just emphasizes that the current simplistic tag system is a bad fit for Arqade. If games were a different kind of tag the game could be automatically displayed in a prominent way on each question
@badp I actually think that SE will have to make their tag engine more flexible at some point, they're getting to a point were it is is noticeable that the one-size-fits-all solution is not really optimal
Oh wise @spugsley, bestow upon us your advice: Do we need to start putting tags in question titles to make it easier for people to know which game a question is about?
A tag being removed from the system just stops it from showing up in tag statistics, being on the tags list, and being shown to users when they're tagging. Which is, well, everywhere it would be besides being on a question.
i want to play old games i use to have :
ace combat
The Movies
Sim Coaster
...
i don't want to have to buy a hard copy because i am not in the US, so the downloadable version is better.
I can't find any non illegal way to have them >.<.
i have the Mech Warrior for free from Microsoft
If anyone's interested, Chasm hit their funding goal, but if you want to help participate towards their stretch goals, you can still pre-order it from their site.
@Jaydles More than for the edit and the apologies, I'm joyous that you took the time to listen to our story and accept some feedback from us. I'm sorry for any emotional distress or derails I might've caused you. Keep up the good work. (The Titanic joke made me chuckle, too.)
Not that I've grown to expect anything less from you people. You're all rather awesome.
In other news, elections on Webmasters and Server Fault.
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