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Force people to change title message in Tech support

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Total Posts
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This is a feature request. Feature requests can be voted up by supporters.
Current Priority: +0
Topic Starter
TheVileOne
Do not let people submit a topic with "Summarize the issue here in 50 characters" as a topic name. everytime I see this, it bothers me. I don't know why people believe they don't need a title, but it spams the forum and makes tech support look less professional when careless threads are made without titles.

Threads need an informative title to be a valid thread.

I think it would be a good idea to selectall the thread title data when you make a new thread, and do not let a thread go through with a default topic message.
Saten
The template doesn't really help that much imo
I see often that users leave stuff untouched, like the 1, 2, 3 steps.


Maybe just make the subject field empty instead?
Or make it disappear when selecting it.

Just look at Google Custom Search, User & Beatmap.
peppy
I made it not "disappear" so people would consider changing it, and so we could just purge those which don't.
MillhioreF
I've been curious about this... are we allowed to edit these default thread titles? I changed a few when the template first came around, but now I'm not sure if I should.
Full Tablet
What about making it so if the user hasn't written a title, it gives an error message similar to the one given when the title field is empty?
Oinari-sama
I don't know about forum tools so this may be completely outrageous, but: is it possible to use a "form" interface for tech support forum, where users are required to fill in multiple boxes to create new thread? (does not apply to replies)

So having 4 boxes to be filled:

-Subject (current size will suffice)
-Explain the issue you are having (half of normal forum composer box size)
-Is it reproducible? (drop down box YES/NO/Others)
-Explain the steps to reproduce the problem, or any comment/additional info (normal sized forum composer box).

If any box is left empty there should be a message displayed under the box: "This field is required. Type N/A is not applicable"

I think current "template text" may be confusing for some (whether they're ignorant or just having language problem), cause I remember seeing people posting just the template text without any info from them! Some people must've thought that "oh yeah there's already something here so it's like one of those microsoft report, all I need to do is hit send" =.=
Topic Starter
TheVileOne
They wont learn. Please force them to change their title.
Marcin
Yes please. There is smaller amounts of them in comparison to the past, but still...
Nathanael
Seeing so many threads named "What is your problem (50 characters)" can possilby confuse people going there.
Its a good idea to let them force to use another title.
FrzR

Nathanael wrote:

Seeing so many threads named "What is your problem (50 characters)" can possilby confuse people going there.
Its a good idea to let them force to use another title.
Same here too. But big support to this idea.
Wishy
It's also kind of funny when someone doesn't delete the default text and just write under it.

I know this is kind of off-topic but:

peppy, is it possible (and do you think it's worth doing ofc) to make that initial text and title change based on the user's location? Like having a default template for chinese, japanese, korean, etc. I don't think it would be that hard to get a translation for that and it might help some people. You could also clarify stuff like (if using another language, say korean) that they should try to explain their problem in english, and if that they don't feel very confident about it they should also do it on their native language so someone may be able to translate. Something like: "Please try to explain your problem in english, if you are not very good at it you can also add an explanation in [insert language here]."

I'm not sure how helpful this would be since it's not like I read Tech Support forum all the time.
Nathanael

Wishy wrote:

peppy, is it possible (and do you think it's worth doing ofc) to make that initial text and title change based on the user's location? Like having a default template for chinese, japanese, korean, etc. I don't think it would be that hard to get a translation for that and it might help some people. You could also clarify stuff like (if using another language, say korean) that they should try to explain their problem in english, and if that they don't feel very confident about it they should also do it on their native language so someone may be able to translate. Something like: "Please try to explain your problem in english, if you are not very good at it you can also add an explanation in [insert language here]."
Sounds like a good idea to me.

I just recently saw 4 threads named "What is your problem (50 characters)" on the Tech support which doesn't look good to me.
It always got my attention. o_o

-- Off-topic suggestion --
Shouldn't there be a read-this-first thread for notices in other translations?

Just like...
English: Always remember to write your problem in English.
Filipino: Palaging tandaan na isulat ang iyong problema sa wikang Ingles.
- Marco -
Get my invisible star
Vuelo Eluko
i believe this text should be the kind 'ghost text' that's grey and disappears when you click it and it will tell them the usual error if they try to make a thread without a title. I don't know the technical term for it but Peppy definitely knows how to do it so why not? These threads are a nonstop headache in the technical support subforum.
- Marco -
It can be done trough html/php. Also no more titles like that :D

Support
Nathanael
This seems easy to fix.

The text should be at the "placeholder" attribute instead of using the "value" attribute so it will always appear when there is no subject specified.
And whenever the poster is leaving the subject blank, the message "You must specify a subject when posting a new topic." will appear.

posting.php seems doing the job by checking if the user is trying to post at Technical Support.
If f=5 (forum = 5, which is Technical Support), add the placeholder to the subject field and the template to the post field.
https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/posting.php?mode=post&f=5
Oinari-sama
Merged with t/233981 "What is your problem? [50 characters] "
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