I'm simply creating this new thread with a first post in MT forum to see how it appears on the TC home page, in the posting summaries, and in a search on TC. This is to check something that I've seen brought up in a thread in another forum, but I'm creating it here in my own forum (with low reading and posting traffic) in order to see how it works. 

I'm also going to post a follow up post to this one, with a different message subject, to see how it also appears in the same places as mentioned above.

Sorry if this posting and the follow-up reply post inconveniences anyone.

Jeff

This is again a test. I know that I'm not using the official test forum, but I want to check how it is appearing in a regular discussion forum. I will delete afterward.

I've used a different message subject in this same thread. This is a reply using the Reply button.

Originally written by Jeff Allen on January 31, 2009 6:22 PM   I've used a different message subject in this same thread. This is a reply using the Reply button.

This is again a test.  I've again used a different message subject in this same thread. This is a reply using the Quote button.

Apologies to those who are inconvenienced by reading this. I'm trying to troubleshoot something with how messages appear.

Hi Jeff

I often change the thread subject line, whether I "reply" or "quote" and I can already tell you that my new subject line is always what is displayed on the most current thread listing on the Forum front page. It also works if I edit my own post later, precisely because I've had second thoughts and decided I just wanted to edit the subject line.

dominique

Originally written by dominique f. on January 31, 2009 2:56 PM Hi Jeff I often change the thread subject line, whether I "reply" or "quote" and I can already tell you that my new subject line is always what is displayed on the most current thread listing on the Forum front page. It also works if I edit my own post later, precisely because I've had second thoughts and decided I just wanted to edit the subject line. dominique

Quote button job.

Could have sworn it had Jeff's ".. do not read" title with your name as the last poster....

Edit - yup, thought so. I changed the title to "Are you sure?" (as you can see, when you are actually IN the thread) but after posting the above, the thread showed on the MT sub-forum page and the general forums page under Jeff's original title.

to Dominique - I'm not trying to say that you are wrong or mistaken or anything like that, just... that wasn't what happened to me . Could it be anything to do with membership status?

... absolutely! Just read the title of my post just below yours: it displays MY changed title. (and I've checked in the past, whenever I change the subject line - that's how I know!)

df

PS (via Edit function) I mean of course on the Home page with the 3 lists of "recent jobs" and "recent forum threads" and "recent questions" (first page I and most others I assume look at). If I go into the "Machine Translation" thread list, then yes, Jeff's original title is still displayed obviously (which is what he was describing in his post on the other forum thread, at least from the little I actually understood of his technical descriptions!!).

PS: re. membership status: don't think so, I'm just a run-of-the-mill "user", just like you.

Originally written by dominique f. on January 31, 2009 3:16 PM PS (via Edit function) I mean of course on the Home page with the 3 lists of "recent jobs" and "recent forum threads" and "recent questions" (first page I and most others I assume look at). If I go into the "Machine Translation" thread list, then yes, Jeff's original title is still displayed obviously (which is what he was describing in his post on the other forum thread, at least from the little I actually understood of his technical descriptions!!).

That has solved that minor mystery, then.

On the TC site home page, then yes, in the box that has the most recent forum posting (mine is a little box on the right, under TC Terms leaders and something else - just has the one thread.) the title was as you describe - your amended title.

And I'm sorry to appear contrary, but I only very rarely visit the home page.

Thread name (same as Message subject of first post)
Message Subject (can be different from thread name). However, if you click on Reply button at bottom of thread, your new post will take the name the original thread name. If you click on Reply button or Quote Button with a specific post, your new post will automatically take the name of the post you are replying to.  You can change the Message Subject

In the MT Forum, I created a new thread (with a new subject name) called Thread to test posts in MT forum – don’t need to read and then I made a Reply in the thread with a different Message Subject, and then a second reply (as a Quote) with still again another Message Subject title.

See below

The specific Message Subject of each post appears on the Home page :

And if you use the Forum Search function, it will also bring up the specific Message Subject titles and the Forum name, but the Search function does NOT indicate the Thread name it appears in

Now, if you use the View Forums feature, then you get only the Thread name, and the date it was created, and that it has had a recent entry logged to it.  See below for my 3rd of the 3 posts.

And if you use any of the Thread view menu items (Recent threads/last login/ today/ this week / top 25), the it does the same :

Several people have mentioned that :
1) they don’t even go the TC home page
2) They don’t use the Search function
3) They use the Thread view menu (Recent threads/last login/ today/ this week / top 25)

And we also saw in the 14 pages of 5-10 posts in the thread Is it just me? Can we get some new input around here?  that 95% of the posters did NOT change the Message Subject, but simply kept the same default title as the Message Thread.  So, in a search, the Message Subject doesn’t indicate anything new or interesting related to that thread topic.  And of course in all thread views, only the Thread name displays from the very beginning.

And it seems here that it might be more useful to display the Message subject not only on the Home page and in the Search page (which are the 2 lesser used features) but also in the View Forum and the Thread Views of the forums.

This might shed some perspective on how the message titles are appearing.

I’ll inquire about if the columns displayed in View Forums and Thread Views can be modified to include the Message Subject, and how much work that would require.   The Message subject already does pop up in the 2 other places (on Home page and in the Search), so the impact might be low.  However, all changes made to software code risk breaking other things elsewhere.

For the time being, I can suggest :
1) change the message subject of your post to be something relevant about your specific post within the given thread
2) Don’t just depend on the View Forums and the Thread View features.  Try using the Search feature as well, and do a search over past 30 days

Jeff

Part of the reason for that (if not the main reason) is probably that most other Internet forums do not have this function at all. I’m a fairly seasoned forum user, and I always forget this function even exists here. My eyes are drawn to the main text box, where I’m writing this, and all else is automatically ignored.

Similarly, I should add, I never notice the Message Subject in the thread itself. Occasionally, it will take me a while to understand a post, because it’s only on the fifth read that I realise the Message Subject has been changed, and the rest of the post ties in with the new Message Subject.