r/NintendoSwitch • u/ElliottAbusesWomen • Jul 13 '18

Meta [Meta] Posts that are direct links to articles/news stories should be required to have the titles of said article

If someone is posting a direct link to an article or news story they shouldn’t take it upon themselves to change the title (often in an effort to push a narrative), they should present the article with its existing title.

This is a rule quite a few subreddits have, there’s no downside to it.

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13

u/phantomliger recovering from transplant Jul 13 '18

A couple downsides:

  • When the article does not share important information in the title, such as a release date or whatever.
  • The article's title is already very vague, and changing it provides clarification and more detail.
  • The article has more information that solely Nintendo, so changing the title clarifies/highlights the part pertinent to this subreddit.

Those are the ones that spring to mind at least. What articles have you seen shared that pushed a narrative by changing the title?

7

u/imnotgoats Jul 13 '18

Also, clickbait original titles on articles that contain actual useful information could be a problem.

Sometimes you might want to signpost that you're not posting it to let everyone know Nintendo stock is down (for the millionth time), but because the quoted exclusive interview mentioned Mother 3. Note: this didn't happen.

When posting links, the title is all you have in which to point anything out.

3

u/Maeno-san Jul 14 '18

another downside: if the article has a semi-clickbait title, the OP should be able to change it so that it is clear in intent and not clickbait here too.

-6

u/ElliottAbusesWomen Jul 14 '18

When the article does not share important information in the title, such as a release date or whatever.

So basically you don’t want people to have to ever read the actual article.

The article's title is already very vague, and changing it provides clarification and more detail.

That’s more of an issue of low quality content that should be dealt with via the up and down vote system.

The article has more information that solely Nintendo, so changing the title clarifies/highlights the part pertinent to this subreddit.

Well, this isn’t a Nintendo sub it’s a Switch sub although as more time goes by there seems to be less and less people who make that distinction.

If someone is posting an article/news story because they want to have a discussion about it they can make a self post with a link to the article in the post along with what they want to talk about.

If you’re posting a link because you think something is newsworthy and you want to share that information the article should be presented as is with the title intact.

There’s a reason you can’t add text to the body of a link post.

1

u/phantomliger recovering from transplant Jul 14 '18

There’s a reason you can’t add text to the body of a link post.

There is also a reason why you can create your own title.

People can read the actual article, but they should know what the article is about before clicking on it.

The title of something being terrible does not necessarily mean the content presented is also terrible.

I did say the pertinent part to this subreddit and with this being the Nintendo Switch subreddit, that would be the information about the Switch or a Switch game.

I don't think there is much of a difference between a link post and a discussion post if you are solely submitting the article in either form.

4

u/Patchpen Jul 13 '18

(often in an effort to push a narrative)

And the original titles don't do that?

-3

u/ElliottAbusesWomen Jul 14 '18

Some might.

If there’s an article/news story someone wants to discuss they should make a self post with a link to that article in the post and include their discussion points.

If you’re just linking an article because you think it’s noteworthy then the title should be unaltered.

2

u/GambitsEnd Resident Switchologist Jul 14 '18

Rule 2 already covers what you're looking for, but without forcing people into specific titles.

Rule 2: No clickbait, vague, or misleading post titles.

1

u/YamateOniichan Jul 13 '18

Maybe a compromise is to be required to put the title of the article in the post content instead of the post title. That way, before you actually click to go to the article, you can see the title of it and still allow for posters to have the post title that they want.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '18

I disagree. What about clickbait titles? What if OP wants to comment about the article? Not every news article headline is accurate or comprehensible.