[wp-docs] Redundancy in article titles

[Carthik Sharma]

On 4/30/07, Ehi Akwara <akwara at hotmail.com> wrote:
> We are "advanced" users, who see it as redundant. let us not forget the
> growing community of new users, who will appreciate the reminder
>
> sometimes too much "effectiveness" destroys the intended effect; to help
> people use wordpress. the titles aid that. and that is the whole point, no?

Well, like I asked, where do you stop adding "WordPress" in the title, then?
It is good to have defined practices and follow them - recall rates go
higher... when I was an active support volunteer and documentor, I
used to remember many codex urls - based on the logical structure and
minimality of URLs. If you were to add WordPress to all the title,
that would solve this problem - albeit in a wasteful way (in my
opinion).

I honestly don't see how adding "WordPress" to title will help remind
people they are the wordpress codex, or that the article deals with
WordPress.

Also, too much effectiveness can't be but most effective - by definition. :)

Carthik.
>
> Ehi
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carthik Sharma" <carthik at gmail.com>
> To: "WordPress Documentation" <wp-docs at lists.automattic.com>
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 10:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [wp-docs] Redundancy in article titles
>
>
> > On 4/30/07, Jennifer Hodgdon <yahgrp at poplarware.com> wrote:
> >> Ehi Akwara wrote:
> >> > Well there is nothing wrong with reinforcing the wordpress brand in
> >> > users minds. what if someone saves that particular page as a bookmark?
> >>
> >> That is not a problem. When you rename a page, the old title remains
> >> around as a link to the new page, perhaps forever.
> >
> > I think the point that Ehi was trying to make was that bookmarks
> > inherit the title of the webpage, and so future bookmarkers will get
> > only "coding standards" as opposed to "wordpress coding standards" -
> > its a valid point.
> >
> >> However, can you want to start changing titles until some consensus is
> >> reached? One person posted a gripe, and one person answered that he
> >> agreed, so far.
> >
> > I suppose no consensus has been reached as to changing titles yet :)
> >
> >> I personally prefer titles like "WordPress Lessons" over "Lessons"
> >> (seems more specific and friendly somehow). Also "WordPress Coding
> >> Standards" makes it clear that the coding standards apply to all of
> >> WordPress (as opposed to Theme Coding Standards, Plugin Coding
> >> Standards, etc.). "Getting Started with WordPress" rather than
> >> "Getting Started" -- makes it clear that it is not going to cover how
> >> to get started with blogging in general, acquire web hosting, etc.
> >
> > Well, in that case, barring a few pages, every page on the Codex will
> > need to have "wordpress" in the title - example: WordPress Template
> > Tags". Coding standards for wordpress (whether "core" files or
> > templates or theme files) are the same now. How about using just
> > "Getting Started" if you are talking about WordPress, which is likely
> > the more common case on a WordPress documentation site, and using
> > "Getting Started with CuteFTP" if you dealing with exceptions, like,
> > in this case, CuteFTP?
> >
> > Let me try and make my point this way - very rarely do you find
> > corporate pages with the title "About Corporate-Entity-Name". If you
> > are at some entity's webpage, then you know that already - no need to
> > repeat that again.
> >
> > We should be thinking of reducing redundancy, and making title more
> > effective - thus, instead of "WordPress for Beginners" - could we have
> > an action word, or a descriptive noun instead of WordPress? - What
> > about "Tips for Beginners" or better still "Resources/RoadMap for
> > Beginners"?
> >
> > I think I need not invoke Occam's razor now ;) I think it is better
> > that titles remain short, concise and to the point.
> >
> > To me, using WordPress in page title implies a general lack of
> > inventiveness, and adds unnecessary flak in the form of redundant
> > words to the title. "WordPress" is already there is the URL -
> > codex.wordpress.org. That should keep the search engines happy.
> >
> > Carthik.
> >
> >
> >> Just my 2 cents...
> >>
> >>         Jennifer
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> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ph.D. Candidate
> > University of Central Florida
> > Homepage: http://carthik.net
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-- 
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net