10
$\begingroup$

Recently this question was posted: Is the ISS a tennis racket?

I think the question itself is good, but the question title by itself does not make any sense without context. This makes it useless in search results, which harms the value of the question.

I didn't want to go as far as to editing it, although I think it should be edited. What is the Right Thing to do here? Leave as is or edit?

$\endgroup$
9
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @uhoh I'd like to hear your opinion also. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Dec 21, 2019 at 14:57
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ IMO the search results would show the text too which would help identifying that it was helpful $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Dec 21, 2019 at 19:17
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I downvote questions with humorous or click-bait style titles -- unless they are particularly relevant to the question $\endgroup$
    – user20636
    Commented Dec 21, 2019 at 21:03
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Ludo the way @replies works means that I didn't receive a notification even though you left a comment here because I hadn't posted here already (thus the name "replies"). I've added a link to this back on the original question so everyone can see it. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 0:16
  • $\begingroup$ related but different: MathJax in titles? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 0:18
  • $\begingroup$ @JCRM my answer shows that the title is highly relevant in this case, consider reversing your down vote? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 0:34
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ No, the title wasn't sufficiently relevant @uhoh. As such it was "unhelpful." As such I downvoted. The edited title is relevant, so I have reversed my vote. $\endgroup$
    – user20636
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 10:49
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ You can't imagine just how badly I wanted to leave the title How badly does the ISS banana? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Mar 24, 2020 at 23:23
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Orange you glad you didn't say banana? $\endgroup$
    – Rob
    Commented Feb 2, 2021 at 4:34

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
15
$\begingroup$

Titles should give a reasonable expectation for what the question is about.

Drifting by, I could only deduce that the question was related to the international space station, which makes it a poor title. Unless, of course, most others immediately get what "tennis racket" has to do with the station, which I doubt.

On a more general note, "The Right Thing to do" is always to make questions better, which also includes editing the title.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ This looks like the right answer to me! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 1:33
-5
$\begingroup$

Should nonsensical question titles be edited?

This title is not nonsensical.

Here is my thinking when I wrote the title:

  1. In this SE site many readers will know a bit about dynamics, and "tennis racket theorem" is a real thing. That's the name chosen in Wikipedia's Tennis racket theorem article, chosen over "intermediate axis theorem" or "Dzhanibekov effect".
  2. These days searches in SE or with search engines are not specifically keyed off of titles, and arguments about "won't show up in searches" are probably baseless.

I've written thousands of SE question titles and I almost always put a lot of thought into them, sometimes revising them several times in the first few hours as I consider further. In this case I felt and still feel that the title is sufficiently clear and absolutely relevant.

And what's wrong with an occasional title that also attract views anyway? If it brings more readers to the excellent and authoritative answer then where is the harm?

However: if you can propose a different title that still captures the "tennis racketness" of the physics of the problem, maybe we can find one we both think is better!

This makes it useless in search results, which harms the value of the question.

I think that may be a false flag. These days search functions tend to be good, and will get even better, and search results always contain snippets of the relevant content for instant visual confirmation.

Searching google for "iss intermediate axis" or Space SE for "iss intermediate" both yield my question and thus your answer as the first result, though who knows how google sorts results. I'd appreciate someone else check that as well.

obviously google search works

above: When I didn't specify the site, the question and its snippet still came up on the first page.

obviously SE search works

$\endgroup$
11
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ It doesn't show up when searching for "ISS moment of inertia", which I think it should. Also, only the question title shows in the "Linked/Relevant Question" list, no clarifying context there. I took many classes on rigid body dynamics in university and I've never heard of the tennis racket theorem. The effect is a logical consequence of Euler's equations and I've studied the effect in that context. Hence, for me the current question title doesn't tell me anything and it bothers me that I have to actually read the question body in order to understand it. But if I'm the only one, I'll back off. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 10:14
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Ludo thanks for your feedback! Please don't back off, I think you have a valid point. The "However: if..." above invites you (or anybody) to propose a better title. To get the ball rolling, how about something like "Is the ISS a tennis racket? Does it rotate around its intermediate moment of inertia axis?" If that's good enough, please feel free to edit my post and add that. Of course I can do it, but it might be cathartic (in a small way) and/or fun for you to go ahead and do it. You can even add another answer here summarizing. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 11:44
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Alright, I edited the title to something that I think should satisfy everyone. $\endgroup$
    – Ludo
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 13:05
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ if you've got to explain your thinking for a "clever" title, it's not as clever as you think. $\endgroup$
    – user20636
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 12:07
  • $\begingroup$ @JCRM disagree; cleaver may need explaining because it's by definition non-obvious, and its that non-obviousness that makes the explanation helpful to some. So perhaps "clever" is not a desirable adjective for a title. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 15:15
  • $\begingroup$ no @uhoh, a clever title needs no explanation, just as a funny joke needs no explanation $\endgroup$
    – user20636
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 16:25
  • $\begingroup$ @JCRM we'll continue to disagree on what is or is not clever. The difference is that I recognize "clever" and "funny" to be purely subjective terms. You can say that you don't think it is clever, but you can't prove it. Even when expressed in a matter-of-fact style, it's simply an individual, personal opinion. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 16:47
  • $\begingroup$ @JCRM to me for example, a good joke may be one that needs no explanation, but a clever joke might take years to even be recognized as such. Cleverness may use subtlety, which is not always good for a Stack Exchange title. As an aside, a quest for good jokes that none-the-less may need explanations for most of us might begin in comments under this answer. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 17:02
  • $\begingroup$ web.archive.org/web/20190430085721/https://mathoverflow.net/… $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 17:13
  • $\begingroup$ well, you keep explaining your jokes until people laugh $\endgroup$
    – user20636
    Commented Dec 25, 2019 at 11:40
  • $\begingroup$ bah, humbug I say! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Dec 25, 2019 at 13:06

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .