Appealing Thread Titles (Poll)

[Minibit]

I've noticed a bunch of aggressively worded titles in the institute lately, and thinking about them, I guessed there were a few ways their tone could be taken

A: "Hell yeah! Badass article gonna tell it like it is!"
B: "I... I suck? that's not fair..."
C: "Oh excellent, I see this with perfect objectivity as 'what not to do'"

Basically an aggressively worded title like "Reasons your weapon is lame and unoriginal" could be read aggressively, as if someone is shouting at you or demeaning you for a mistake you may not have even made, or it could be taken as a funny rant-style education, like this infographic about breeding a Catching Gallade in pokemon


So, vote and tell me which of the alternate titles for the same subject sounds more appealing to you, cause I'm curious!

 

[Brovo]

Tone control is important if you want to offer someone information, even with a title. Seeing as how this is the Internet and your voice does not translate into text, you need to learn other methods instead.

#1: Use bolding or underlining to illustrate an important point, usually the Aesop you are attempting to convey. Colours can help, but too many will turn your thread into an eye-raping rainbow, so use them sparingly.

#2: Language control, always use suggestive language and avoid authoritative tone. That is, instead of saying "you must always force Jimmy down to the beach to start the sex scene", write instead "you should attempt to placate with Jimmy about something you would like to do with him, such as badonking him down at the beach".

#3: Vocabulary helps. The more verbose it is, the greater the variety of words you can use, and the more control you can have over your tone between suggestive and authoritative language.

#4: Proofread. Read what you just wrote: If it makes no coherent sense or if it sounds like something an asshole would say, kill it with fire and try again.

#5: Make sure it has a point. If it's aimless bitching, it will sound like aimless bitching, no matter how much you may try to make it not sound like aimless bitching. If you're not sure how to explain a point, turn it into a question and seek public inquiry: Consensus can do wonders.

In short: People like to be informed of things with suggestions. People don't typically respond well to being told what to do and what to think, instead wording it as "here is another way to do things or think about things" will generally catch a larger audience in a positive manner. Debates can be a healthy way of learning through public inquiry, so long as you stick with questions and don't use accusations.

 

[Minibit]

Tone control is important if you want to offer someone information, even with a title. Seeing as how this is the Internet and your voice does not translate into text, you need to learn other methods instead.

#1: Use bolding or underlining to illustrate an important point, usually the Aesop you are attempting to convey. Colours can help, but too many will turn your thread into an eye-raping rainbow, so use them sparingly.

#2: Language control, always use suggestive language and avoid authoritative tone. That is, instead of saying "you must always force Jimmy down to the beach to start the sex scene", write instead "you should attempt to placate with Jimmy about something you would like to do with him, such as badonking him down at the beach".

#3: Vocabulary helps. The more verbose it is, the greater the variety of words you can use, and the more control you can have over your tone between suggestive and authoritative language.

#4: Proofread. Read what you just wrote: If it makes no coherent sense or if it sounds like something an asshole would say, kill it with fire and try again.

#5: Make sure it has a point. If it's aimless bitching, it will sound like aimless bitching, no matter how much you may try to make it not sound like aimless bitching. If you're not sure how to explain a point, turn it into a question and seek public inquiry: Consensus can do wonders.

In short: People like to be informed of things with suggestions. People don't typically respond well to being told what to do and what to think, instead wording it as "here is another way to do things or think about things" will generally catch a larger audience in a positive manner. Debates can be a healthy way of learning through public inquiry, so long as you stick with questions and don't use accusations.

E-easy there tiger. This copy pasta of yours seems to be about post content, and this thread here is just a quick poll about titles; you're allowed to click a button and move along o.o

 

[Brovo]

E-easy there tiger. This copy pasta of yours seems to be about post content, and this thread here is just a quick poll about titles; you're allowed to click a button and move along o.o

Can't help myself sometimes.

 

[Kestrel]

Most aggressive titles instantly set off alarms yelling; 'poorly written article by some teenager who cares more about ranting than educating'.

Usually this is true.

The main purpose of an article is to give people a resource which will elevate or broaden their understanding of the subject of said article. Understanding that, I'm not sure why anyone would write their articles in a way that alienates people by talking down to them. Teaching cannot be the primary motivation when the tone, or even title of the article is condescending.

EDIT: Your Gallade example doesn't talk down to the audience, it's just vulgar. Which is fine. But a title for it would be more like "Five things to ditch if you wanna write a badass motherfucker."

 

[Jorick]

Generally speaking, the less aggressive version of a title will sound more appealing to me. Titles like the first option of the poll seem like tryhard clickbait to me. If you have worthwhile content, then there is no need to swindle people into reading it by using an edgy title.

Also, as Kestrel said, they tend to be pretty bad. You can get away with the edgy title if you're keeping up a humorous and condescending tone throughout the whole post while also keeping it good and informative, but most people fail to do so in an amusing enough manner to warrant it.

 

[SamIO]

Golly, I feel so backwards — but somehow it doesn't disconcert me when articles are aggressively titled; to me it's assumed that these are all opinion posts, so the suggestive tone isn't necessary for me to feel adequately brought into the frame of the article. I feel like more aggressive titles come across as casual, sincere attention-grabbers, instead of some of the (perhaps appropriately) stoic or know-it-all/matter-of-fact titles I see around a lot. For me, there's a bit of lampshading coming into play when the title is over the top like that, whereas a more subdued title with the same meaning could come across as narcissistic to me.

Of course, I'm weird and inside-out and stuff so maybe my opinion's not the most accurate representation of common thought. ^.^;

 

[Snowday]

Er, I have a feeling that my character workshop might have contributed to this here thread. Whoops.

Maybe-not-so-unpopular opinion, though - I really like snarky titles, especially when they head up an article written humorously. Of course, I dislike them more than regular titles when the writing that follows is really passive and doesn't deliver on the promise the title presents. I enjoy a snarky, condescending tone when reading a workshop, though, if it's well done. My advice to anyone trying to write a satirical article would be to evaluate yourself - if your writing doesn't live up to your sass-pectations without the use of capslock or excessive swearing, try something else. Especially with the swearing bit, and don't ever swear in your title. It's not against the rules, but it's an eyesore.

But then again, I might be/probably am one of the perpetrators that minibit is trying to address, so do ignore me if I'm being a hypocrite or something.