Ha, that's the best title ever, and it works for just about everything because it means nothing and something at the same time. There's no deep thought behind that statement... just trust me.

Anyway, on to today's "BZP Breakdown," as these little staff segments should be called. *Hint, hint* Okay, so how important is a title, and why should you care?

As someone who constantly names his creations without much problem, I know that a name can sometimes make or break something. If I give something a strange or unique name and people actually know the item exists, they might ask about it; in fact, I might later go, "What was I thinking?" and try to figure out how I started something and explore further possibilities. If I put something generic, people are less likely to go, "Hey, what were you thinking when you named that dog MOC 'Spot'?" In fact, they might be less inclined to care because Spot is such a common dog name. If you say "air" is inside a box, it's obvious and means nothing; if you say "money," there's something worth checking out... whether it's true or not, it's still worth investigating.

Okay, so I wrote that tangent to get to my point.

A lot of times (mainly in Q&A), there are topics with generic titles like "Question" or "I have a question." Well, that's obvious you have a question, or you wouldn't (or shouldn't) have made a topic, but if you want fast help, it's better to have a title with words related to your question. It's like going up to store associates in a grocery store and asking if they can help you find food. Or it's like going to Toys 'R Us and saying, "I'm looking for a toy; can you help me find one?" If you say what you're looking for, people can help you find it better and more quickly.

Not only does being specific with your title get your question answered faster and more efficiently, it also helps those that may not know about what you're asking decide they're not going to try for a random guess approach-- random answers are spam: if you don't know, don't post. Or it might even help someone else who doesn't know but wants to find an answer without having to make a similar topic. Also, titles about specific subjects help people with similar interests find your topic, or if your title and subject are unique enough, people will actually want to stop in and see if the topic is worth their time.

Now suppose you want to know something about a particular forum like COT, so you put "COT" in part of the title; someone who knows COT is more likely to see your topic and answer your question rather quickly. Granted, if you actually have a question about a particular forum, it's best to just ask one of the Forum Leaders or Assistants of said forum. Yeah, we're the store associates in this grocery store, and we're more likely to help you find the bread... it's aisle ten, next to the toy aisle.

So how important is a title of a topic? Let's just say there are two important parts of a topic: content and title. Content is the most important thing; title is second. Everything else is third.

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