Users seem to dislike "Give your problem a great title!"

Thanks for that reference. I'll give that a look-see. I guess what I'd worry about are a ton of topics with titles like "How do I make the...." and "What's the best way to...." Not very awesome in search results the way our search currently works.

I like the idea of making tags more visible, but many customers who are less tech-savvy (and that is, let's be honest, most customers) don't seem to use them or understand them all the time.

Ideally, we are -- playfully -- trying to encourage people to think a bit more about how their words are perceived in the community. Some folks, though, prefer cold efficiency to playful humanity. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

I'd be interested to hear what others think, but the link provided as an example is one from an angry customer, and I would hate to base an important decision like this solely on the attitudes of the grumpiest.

[This guy had an interesting take on that same new-topic page: http://garrettdimon.com/archives/2008.... Worth reading if you're into these kinds of details. He's pretty sharp.]

Thanks, uzzer.

Yeah, calling them "keywords" might help.

The only thing that strikes me about the "10 words or less" approach is that it is asking customers to limit themselves and it's slightly negative in connotation, two things we often seek to avoid. That said, sometimes that kind of approach is necessary.

This is just my own opinion, but I think that some people react negatively to our super-sunny approach and consider it a bit too touchy-feely. So, we always have to take that into account, too.