...if ppl would use subjects for their message that at least partly describe what the thread is about so you'd know whether to waste your time clicking it or not.

Here are some recent examples (verbatim, not truncated):

"You know what would be cool?"
"Is There Any Way?? Someone Must Have An Idea"
"Probably due to my foolishness, but never hurts..."
"Who thinks it would be cool if....."
"I'm sure I'm not the first to ask...."
"interesting situation.. need some help. thanks"
"You are going to hate me for this....sorry!"
"Don't know what this problem is..."
"I got an idea"

What floors me is that seasoned forum members are often just as guilty as n00bs at doing this -- and some forum members more guilty than not. It just seems to be part of some members' personalities, like they were used-car salesmen or telemarketers in a previous life or something.

Tip: if you think your leading title is playful suspense, its not. Its irritating as hell. If you think otherwise, you must be the type that likes mail titled "You May Already Be A Winner - Open This Now!"

If people are interested in your topic and want to read it, they'll read it.

(the title of this thread is a parody)

like this message :-)

> like this message :-)

Welcome to Parodyville.

What floors me is that seasoned forum members are often just as guilty as n00bs at doing this

Because, once upon a time, everyone here would read every single message thread. So the subject lines really didn't matter much.

However, with the increased traffic, I agree that subject lines are important and we should all be better about making them descriptive.

Agree completely.

(I have probably been guilty!).

In OT it seems like less of an issue, but, in more topical forums it would help if subject lines were more specific for reasons you and Tony cite.

> In OT it seems like less of an issue, but, in more topical
> forums it would help if subject lines were more specific
> for reasons you and Tony cite.

Yes, I only dumped this message here to not spam the main forums with my grumpiness. OT is laissez-faire as AFAIC.

Blech.

Because, once upon a time, everyone here would read every single message thread.

In order to do that now, I'd have to quit my job... I still try to get all of the messages in Programming, Technical, Bug Reports, Wish List, etc. but I simply can't keep up with General anymore. Off Topic is a nice break from the hardcore Empeg forums. Especially when jimhogan is involved.

I find myself posting less, too, for the same reasons. Descriptive subjects would be nice, as would a wwwthreads feature to show all of the new posts in a forum in one nice long page, regardless of the thread they're in. Kinda like an email digest. Maybe I'll get bored and write a Perl script one of these days...

Especially when [censored] is involved.

Oh, [censored]. And here I was hanging out in OT trying to annoy people.

Obviously, I need to reconsider my approach!

(OK...OK......Thanks!........[insert gutteral Ambrose Bierce noises here].....Ummm.....Thanks!)

I'm certainly for this. As a very new member, (although some-time observer),
I thought I'd read through ALL posts to gather as much info and tips as I could.
(This is while waiting for my player to arrive).
I'ts taken me the best part of two weeks spare time just to scratch the surface!
Scanning through "vaguely named" threads in the hope of finding some useful
snippet of information has tested my powers of peserverance.
At least I've got a good understanding of player installation and operation;
the search feature will come in handy next.
As a small side-line, it's annoying when the subject goes off on a tangent
some way into a thread, while some posts are still commenting on the original
message.
A link over to a new thread (usually in a more appropriate section)
would be better.

Nevertheless, this has kept me informed!

I thought I'd read through ALL posts to gather as much info and tips as I could.

Not a bad idea. While you're at it, you could read every page on the entire internet, too.

Don't worry too much about reading through all the BBS posts. Just read through the FAQ and then join the current BBS discussions as necessary.

Congrats on your new purchase, let us know how you like it once it arrives.

"You have reached the end of the internet. You have seen all there is to see."

"You have reached the end of the internet. You have seen all there is to see."

Yes, It's here, here and here.
Fortunately it starts here

> Fortunately it starts here

How appropriate that the "start of the Internet" begins with a pop-up window advertisement. Sigh.

At least the popup (for me, anyway) was a blood donor advert...

Hugo