MyBB Community Forums

I'm liking the way effone and other members of staff are closing those annoying threads that have a no descriptive thread title. But would it be possible to add a Thread Prefix that you could use when you close the thread. ?

I still end up looking at some of them, but if I saw the prefix something like [Nondescript] I wouldn't bother looking.

If not thank you anyway for closing so many of those annoying threads.

Why not just look at the thread icon? It'll have a padlock there which shows the thread has been locked.

(2018-07-22, 10:55 AM)Wires Wrote: [ -> ]Why not just look at the thread icon? It'll have a padlock there which shows the thread has been locked.

Old age and not great eyesight I'm afraid.

Why not just read the thread title? "Help me" or whatnot indicates it's probably closed due to a nondescript thread title.

(2018-07-23, 09:07 PM)laie_techie Wrote: [ -> ]Why not just read the thread title? "Help me" or whatnot indicates it's probably closed due to a nondescript thread title.

Don't worry about it.

(2018-07-23, 09:39 PM)sarisisop Wrote: [ -> ]

(2018-07-23, 09:07 PM)laie_techie Wrote: [ -> ]Why not just read the thread title? "Help me" or whatnot indicates it's probably closed due to a nondescript thread title.

Don't worry about it.

I don't know how many threads and posts MyBB.com gets per day, but I bet it's a lot.

Because of the high traffic that MyBB.com does get, it's hard to monitor every single post until someone does report it. 

Unfortunately, all of those 'Help Me' posts are still being read and a few are an actual legit need for help, but because the original author did not bother to read the rules of MyBB.com, their posts get locked.

A few of them did learn their lesson and posted a new thread with a better title, which makes the future search of similar topics easier to find.

Putting a prefix probably won't stop people from reading those posts anyways. 
It's like putting a 'Do Not Walk On The Grass' on a lawn but you do see footprints on the grass.
So... what's the point of putting a prefix on 'Help Me' posts when people are still going to read them.

Honestly i disagree with this attitude language is a barrier to life and because someone does not post a thread title inline with what MyBB says the attitude is to close this i am sorry but that is pathetic.

you can use an excuse and say the nominal amount of posts made each day etc and it is about saving time but honestly that is why MyBB is falling behind. it is antisocial and egotistical to lock a thread based on a simple title issue. When in a community you need to draw members in and promote growth in what is a declining system you need to help honestly you are not above the end user they are your target audience and without them there is no growth then what happens to MyBB.

You can see this happening now  with decline in usage and honestly developers moving onto to other things i want to use MyBB and have done so for a damn long time but i do see this attitude within the community now that is pushing people away.

I honestly find it offensive to close or lock a thread based on the title when it is the content that should be the issue it is not about how easy a thread is to find the focus should be on finding a solution and providing the simplest way for the end user to gain the answers they are looking for.

I am a project manager and honestly if i had staff ignore or treat the end user or the target audience in this way then that is a failing on management as it should not happen.

I know i will be attacked for saying this but it is my honest view and i have been around projects like this for a damn long time and attitude is everything and there are simple solutions the time it takes to close a thread could have been used to answer a thread or request more information. it is not hard to ask for more detail rather than to be egotistical and close the thread as it does not fit that little box.

I didn't track it but my impression is that many, if not most, of these threads are basically clones. Always made by new user accounts using the copied and pasted words from another thread, a vague thread title, and the result looks legitimate enough to pass automated spam detection. They usually leave it sitting for a few days, then change the first post's content to some spam message with lots of links.

People who are running forums themselves, no matter in which language, should know that thread titles like "help me" or "i need help please" are not useful.

(2018-07-30, 05:16 AM)fishntassie Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly i disagree with this attitude language is a barrier to life and because someone does not post a thread title inline with what MyBB says the attitude is to close this i am sorry but that is pathetic.

you can use an excuse and say the nominal amount of posts made each day etc and it is about saving time but honestly that is why MyBB is falling behind. it is antisocial and egotistical to lock a thread based on a simple title issue. When in a community you need to draw members in and promote growth in what is a declining system you need to help honestly you are not above the end user they are your target audience and without them there is no growth then what happens to MyBB.

You can see this happening now  with decline in usage and honestly developers moving onto to other things i want to use MyBB and have done so for a damn long time but i do see this attitude within the community now that is pushing people away.

I honestly find it offensive to close or lock a thread based on the title when it is the content that should be the issue it is not about how easy a thread is to find the focus should be on finding a solution and providing the simplest way for the end user to gain the answers they are looking for.

I am a project manager and honestly if i had staff ignore or treat the end user or the target audience in this way then that is a failing on management as it should not happen.

I know i will be attacked for saying this but it is my honest view and i have been around projects like this for a damn long time and attitude is everything and there are simple solutions the time it takes to close a thread could have been used to answer a thread or request more information. it is not hard to ask for more detail rather than to be egotistical and close the thread as it does not fit that little box.

I'm not sure that what the MyBB staff is doing in regards to closing 'non-descriptive' threads would be considered "anti-social and egotistical". 

What I can see is many of those thread titles that start and end with 'Help Me' are totally useless in that website search function. 

Let's say, for example, the recent major issue of the 'Authorization Code Mismatch' issue. If everyone one of those posts began with a 'Help Me' thread, it would be impossible for someone to filter out the ones that do not address this particular issue. 

I mean, if I was doing a search for the 'Authorization Code Mismatch' issue, I don't care about the 'Help Me' threads that discuss a theme, a plugin or some other issue. 
By having a more descriptive thread title, then the search will be able to pull out the ones that I do care about and ignore all other ones that don't pertain to the issue that I am having.

That's (in my opinion) is the logic of why I see more and more closing of threads with non-descriptive titles.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this point.

This we started to handle mainly bots. Some smart bots started making random legit questions and when you answer they just edit the main post with spams later. The only identification was their timeline-depended changing naming pattern and 'Non-descriptive Thread Title'. Search for "Please help me a question" and see how many threads have been made with that title. If we don't close these threads they eventually will edit the main post to spam and editing doesn't pull the thread in recent (new / today's) list, hence the spam remains unnoticed.

We are here to help our members and there is no intention to be harsh with them. Even 99%+ users create at least understandable subjects, if not - once getting closed they learn and make better title. They are human, legit members.

Extended: Proper thread title is helpful to search issues and troubleshooting in a handy way. Thread with title "Help me urgent" containing some critical guideline will be lost over time and not be easily search able leading to repeated brainstorming for the same issue.