I’ve noticed that topics in the Questions category often have very vague titles. For example:
- Questions on browser cookies
- Question on VPN usage across apps and a try for visual guide
- Brave browser & Themes
Here are some examples of topic titles which are very succinct and reflect their respective topic’s question (which I am advocating for):
- Does Cromite have something equivalent to Brave's Content Filtering?
- How Should I Install Firefox on Fedora?
We can either create a rule to enforce this so that users follow it (which will create a blanket rule for all topics in the Questions category), or have forum moderators edit vague titles where they see fit (which IMO would be better, but puts extra work on moderators).
Discussion
I’m concerned that vague topic titles may affect SEO, both for Google (and other internet search engines) as well as the Privacy Guides forum search engine.
If the former is true (that it affects internet search engines), the reach of Privacy Guides is limited by it. If the latter is true, people searching for specific questions on the forum may have a more difficult time finding answers (and forum members may consequently create duplicate threads).
For the latter case, I am more concerned with people not finding answers to their questions, especially if they do not have an account and will settle for less if any convenience is lost in finding answers, which consequently limits the reach of Privacy Guides as well.
For anyone who has technical knowledge in SEO for Google and/or Discourse, I am wondering if my concerns are valid.
Criticisms
There are, however, certainly cases where vague titles do serve better. Having multiple questions in the same topic, for example, would call for vague titles as an abstraction of all the questions combined. (A solution to this would be to enforce a rule where only one question is permitted per topic, but this would create issues that I am not fond of, and so remains a valid criticism.)
Some vague titles may also actually serve better for SEO. In this example, the topic’s actual question is: How feasible is it that someone could pressure workers into skipping the passcode verification for accessing my cell plan over the phone? But the already existing title (How to protect myself from SIM swap attacks) is something that most people would search for. This would thus resolve potential XY problems (which is prevalent in the privacy space).
Potential dilemma
Newcomers of the privacy space will most likely search for X (vague title), which will reveal Y (the actual question in the topic), which is good because their questions are being addressed and they have easy access to it. On the other hand, those who are searching for more exact questions will likely search for Y and receive X, making them feel like their questions are not being addressed.