Editing out noise and redundancy in titles

Question

There seems to be an increasing number of questions asked by new users who write titles that have redundancy or unhelpful verbiage.

Some fictional examples:

• Question about resistors
  (Everything is a question here, so this just says 'resistors.')
• Need help with my supercapacitor
  (Of course you need help or you wouldn't be writing.)
• Confusion about inductor datasheet
  (Point me to the problem, not the fact you are confused.)
• Transformer isolation question
  (Welcome to the department of redundancy department, welcome!)
• Microcontroller in reset loop problem
  (Better, but questions and problems are essentially synonyms here.)
• Help identifying SMD chip
  (It's a given that you need help. Instead, include some small detail about the IC!)

The entire site is a Q&A, so it should be obvious that the user is posting a question about something. In some cases titles such as these might be to meet the minimum character requirement without any real thought about the title. In others, the inclusion of such phrases is innocent, but serves only to add useless padding and noise.

I'd like to encourage editors to recognize and fix these, commenters to educate OPs when helpful, and StackExchange to implement whatever possible to recognize/flag dubious titles and at least suggest to the author that their title may need improvement.

Titles should be succinct and summarize the question. (Ideally, they instill curiosity and encourage readers to continue.)

• Why are there so many resistors in series in this circuit?
• Why does this supercapacitor not fully charge as expected?
• What is meant by having two saturation current values on this inductor datasheet?
• Is this isolation transformer wiring safe?
• What is causing this microcontroller to get into a reset loop?
• Identify 14-pin SMD IC in this Acme Roadrunner Catcher.

Answer 1

I totally agree. Question titles are important to the question and also make them more searchable and allow those who answer questions to easily select the questions that they wish to answer.

Titles that are too meta I should be reworked to reflect the information in the question. Request clarification from the OP or feel free to edit the titles yourself.

Title should reflect the specifics of the question

Answer 2

On your examples...

Titles are titles, not necessarily an actual question, but all your examples are just questions.

A title could be 'DAC into two-pole filter gives excessive noise'. I think having to put 'Why does my' on the front of that example and a question mark on the end is just unnecessary padding. Which, as it happens, is what you're trying to stamp out.

Answer 3

I don't quite agree.

Questions and problems are not synonyms. A title like "Microcontroller in reset loop problem" does not convey the same information as "Question about microcontroller in reset loop", and not the same again as "Microcontroller reset loop". "Problem" indicates OP is stuck somewhere: he has made a circuit, and it's not working properly. "Question" indicates he's more likely in conception phase, or that it's an academical question.

Other example: changing a title from "Question about resistors" to just "Resistors", makes you loose a lot of information. The first title mentions "question", not "problem", so this is most likely general (like "how do they work" type of question). Maybe it is some homework or beginner question, but I will know this likely isn't about a specific circuit that doesn't work. Overall, there's certainly not a great question behind it, but I get some context.

Now, if I see a title that just says "Resistors", I think I'll just think "resistor what?" and pass.

"Confusion about inductor datasheet": it means OP has seen an ambiguity in an inductor datasheet. He certainly cannot point you right now to the problem, because this certainly needs more information that will be found in the main text. But the "confusion" word here, again, conveys information, that you'll loose if you remove it. Now, "Inductor datasheet": what ? OP cannot find a datasheet? OP does not understand a datasheet? You can't guess the context anymore.

But I agree titles could be made more explicit, and should convey even more information in those cases. But "question", "problem", "confusion" are context words that are still useful.