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Me being nit-picky – COW subject lines
Hey kids…
Maybe this doesn’t bother anyone else at all (probably doesn’t), but thought I’d air a minor COW pet peeve…
It seems that with semi-rare but increasing occasional frequency there will be a long thread going on of some good discussion about something… and then suddenly…. BAM!!… right in the middle of it someone will change the “subject line” of the thread for a post or two.
Why does this bug me? Because I usually don’t have time to actually visit the COW site itself but once or twice a day… usually only to ask a question, or respond to someone who has an issue that I might be able to contribue to. Rather, I get emails regarding new postings or replies to existing ones in the various forums that I help host and a couple of other ones that I haunt.
For those of us relying on the email alerts, instead of an email titled: “Subject: Re: The-thing-you-already-know-what-people-are-talking-about,” instead we get “Subject: Something-brand-new-out-of-the-blue.”
Ergo… someone might have what would otherwise be an interesting or useful post, but I don’t know what the heck they are talking about or what it is in reference to.
Looking back, there have been more than a couple of occasions that I missed what would have otherwise been something I wanted to read or find useful… but I didn’t because I didn’t know what it was referring to and might not have even read it at all.
I’d suggest that if someone really feels the need to change the subject line of an existing thread, they do it as an addendum to the existing subject, rather than changing it altogether.
As I said… if this doesn’t bother anyone else, just ignore me. Chalk me up in the “cranky curmudgeon” category… maybe Zelin and I can get matching jackets.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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21 Replies
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This happens a LOT in the Final Cut Pro forum and is incredibly annoying. Wish the Cow could lock the subjects of each thread so this doesn’t happen. Once you set a Subject, nobody else can change it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
I think this topic-changing feature is called “Mamet Mode”.
“Did you talk to that guy about the thing at that place that one time?”
“That thing from yesterday?”
“No, his, ..the other thing…”
“Oh, right, yes. He said what you thought he would.”
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Bummer, as a truly cranky curmudgeon — and as someone who likely won’t ever stop changing changing subject lines when it makes sense to (or I just feel like it — I doubt this phenomenon will ever change.
It’s been going on like this for the 15 years we’ve been building media communities. I don’t foresee anything changing soon. But who knows, perhaps we’ll see a slow gradual change that takes place over the next 15 years or so. There is always hope.
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You just did it yourself, Ron; very dry wit, that, if it was intentional. better give yourself a 5-minute time-out in the corner
🙂Seriously, One of the things I really enjoy about the COW is how disciplined and orderly, yet still cordial and fun-loving it is, compared to MANY other forums and boards I use. A lot of that is due to Ron and Tim’s Iron Hand and watchful gaze, and to involved and dedicated moderators, no question, but I think in any forum, you can make the “netiquette” pretty self-regulating, pretty quickly, if someone points out a practices violation to whoever transgresses. They tend not to do the same thing twice if they are made to realize that what they’ve done is not approved of. Well, except for the thin-skinned and immature ones, but they don’t last long here anyhow.
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[Mark Suszko] “Well, except for the thin-skinned and immature ones, but they don’t last long here anyhow.”
Yes, they do not last long here at the COW. The thin-skinned learn to either suck it up and go on, or they find that in a community where hundreds of thousands are posting, they don’t get their way all of the time.
No one does.
Not even those that are paying the bills.
Ron Lindeboom
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You’re still doing it. Changing the headings, I mean. Isn’t that a mixed message? Or am I trying to read too much into things; I’ve been doing that a lot lately.
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If a thread morphs such that it needs a new thread, I start it.
But if a thread morphs so that the evolving conversation only makes sense in the context of previous posts in the same thread, then I change the subject line.
This particularly makes sense for people who view the forum with new posts at the top, but it’s still useful in thread view. For example, in this thread, it helps to see that not every post in this long line is about exactly the same thing.
Progress and accuracy, man. I dig it.
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Well, THAT makes sense, Tim…. it’s the random changes that are frustrating.
Such as, I’ll get an email with the subject “[Cow] Try this, it works like a charm!” and then the message might say “You’re right, I’ve been struggling with that problem for months, but just de-select the second check box on that page and, voilà!… problem solved!”
It makes me silently scream “What the hell are they talking about???”… inside my head of course. Outwardly I’m the picture of patience and decorum.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I change the subject line frequently, so I apologize if that annoys you, Todd. You don’t seem cranky at all, but I have to disagree with you, and would not want to see locked subject lines.
1. There are benefits from changing subject lines. I don’t always have the time to look at every post in a thread, so if someone takes the discussion in a direction that sounds interesting, I like to know that. Similarly, I appreciate it when someone simply wants to say “Thanks” or “problem solved” and puts those words in the subject line, thereby saving me the small slice of time it would take to click and read.
2. There’s no substantive negative from changing subject lines. Visually, the way the COW lays out threads makes it quite easy to tell which thread a given post belongs to. Being able to scan a thread and seeing in a subject line a new twist to the discussion is like chapter headings in a book – very useful.
3. The alternative of opening up new but closely-related threads would make the busier COW forums more time-consuming to plow through.
Where I might agree with Todd: gratuitous subject line changes. But I can’t say that’s ever really annoyed me.
Bob C
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[Mark Suszko] “A lot of that is due to Ron and Tim’s Iron Hand and watchful gaze…”
…So is Ron like a Cattle Rancher with a piece of straw in his mouth and Tim is….like…Lassie or something like that?
Jeff Bonano
http://www.bonanoproductions.com“I want to have a cool quote at the bottom of my signature, just like everyone else on the cow forum!” -Jeff Bonano
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