Repeating topic title in each post..

[DavidIQ]

How about we don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed, making it a #1234 link where the number is the post number, and show it if it is changed/different from the topic title?

[mrgtb]

Not sure what you mean by "don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed"? If you mean leave the H3 tag empty with nothing in it, then not so sure that is a good idea, but not sure if that's what you mean. I don't see an issue off hand with listing "Post ID" their instead of thread title, because if you split posts to another thread no renaming of a post id title needs be done really, it can be left intact.

I'm not sure how to deal with it myself, as I think keeping the H3 post title tag is best for page semantics, but what putting their instead of thread title id is the question? Really it's best having something different in each post H3 tag displayed (avoid duplicate titles), while still be suitable for when it comes to merging or splitting posts into a new thread (no title renaming has to be done).

I guess, you could keep the "RE:", but instead of Re: Thread Title - Re: Post ID. Then every post title would be different using a number like "Re: 1245". But that's just an idea, not something I necessarily think is the correct solution.

[Dragosvr92]

I dont think there are any reasons to change the post subject. A topic has replies over the same subject. If you want to change that, start a new topic.
Im uncertain if having the H3 Tag there has any seo relevance, but imo subject area should be empty to make posts easier to read.
Nobody cares about the post id. We could add the post count-link in the right side, near the Report, Quote buttons.
But if it is to chose, i chose to have the post id there instead of the repeating title.

[mrgtb]

I don't disagree with you, as H3 gets used anyway for "Who's Online Title" title when viewing page source code (if you want to talk H tag "order" page semantics). I'm tending to agree with you, in that the H3 title tag in posts should be removed altogether to solve the problem proper.

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<h1 style="float:left;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;">Development Discussion Board</h1>

<h2 class="topic-title"><a href="./viewtopic.php?f=81&t=45797&start=30">Repeating topic title in each post..</a></h2>

<h2 class="quickreply-title">Quick Reply</h2>

<h3><a href="./viewonline.php">Who is online</a></h3>

[DavidIQ]

Not sure what you mean by "don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed"?

How about we don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed, making it a #1234 link where the number is the post number, and show it if it is changed/different from the topic title?

Although we already have a link to the post number anyways so not rendering the title at all might be the most obvious solution, without even the h3 tag since rendering out a number means absolutely nothing.

[BioLogIn]

On my forums I used a tiny mod to remove "Re: " part. I kept the title for each post though, for reasons DavidIQ mentioned - it helps moderators to keep track of merged posts and topic title changes. However, I'll be the first to admit that it is only useful to a tiny percent of users, and for all others it just occupies valuable space.

So +1 for removing is. A column 'post_subject' in phpbb_posts becomes obsolete this way, and should be dropped as well.

[Dragosvr92]

This is how i removed the post titles...

viewtopic_body.html

Find:

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<h3 <!-- IF postrow.S_FIRST_ROW -->class="first"<!-- ENDIF -->><!-- IF postrow.POST_ICON_IMG --><img src="{T_ICONS_PATH}{postrow.POST_ICON_IMG}" width="{postrow.POST_ICON_IMG_WIDTH}" height="{postrow.POST_ICON_IMG_HEIGHT}" alt="" /> <!-- ENDIF --><a href="#p{postrow.POST_ID}">{postrow.POST_SUBJECT}</a></h3>

Remove:

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<a href="#p{postrow.POST_ID}">{postrow.POST_SUBJECT}</a>

posting.php

Find:

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$post_data['post_subject'] = ((strpos($post_data['post_subject'], 'Re: ') !== 0) ? 'Re: ' : '') . censor_text($post_data['post_subject']);  

Replace with:

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$post_data['post_subject'] = '';

quickreply_editor.html

Find and remove:

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						<dl style="clear: left;">
							<dt><label for="subject">{L_SUBJECT}:</label></dt>
							<dd><input type="text" name="subject" id="subject-ns" size="45" maxlength="64" tabindex="2" value="{SUBJECT}" class="inputbox autowidth" /></dd>
						</dl>

And there is this... But i dont know what IF statement to put around it so it shows the subject only when creating/editing the topic title.


posting_editor.html

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	<dl style="clear: left;">
		<dt><label for="subject">{L_SUBJECT}:</label></dt>
		<dd><input type="text" name="subject" id="subject" size="45" maxlength="<!-- IF S_NEW_MESSAGE -->60<!-- ELSE -->64<!-- ENDIF -->" tabindex="2" value="{SUBJECT}{DRAFT_SUBJECT}" class="inputbox autowidth" /></dd>
	</dl>

There is also the issue with removing the 'post_subject' row from the phpbb_posts table, as BioLogIn said. But i'd rather not touch that yet.

[Master_Cylinder]

It's also bad for SEO, would be classed as duplicate titles in Google Webmaster Tools, I got error messages back when I included a Forum in my sitemap

phpbb.com doesn't seem to have a problem with SEO over that...

It's been that way for decades.

And why it probably needs a rethink now in 3.1. Things change for the better.

If only this WAS better. To me it's not.

I dont think there are any reasons to change the post subject.

THIS I agree with but I still wouldn't remove the replied subject(s) so, if that is done, I hope it's optional so I don't need an Extension to put it back.

[Octopus2]

For me it´s god to have the topic-title in each post. When i go through my forum i open "unread posts" an from there open each post in a new tab.
And when you go then to one of these tabs it´s really helpful that you have the topictitle above each post...

[Dragosvr92]

THIS I agree with but I still wouldn't remove the replied subject(s) so, if that is done, I hope it's optional so I don't need an Extension to put it back.

But why would you keep the same thing repeating over and over again for simply no point. It uses bandwidth, disk space and loading time in vain. Of course its not much but it does.

You agree that there is no point in changing the post title as the topic subject will always be the same. Then maybe, We could simply remove the 'post_subject' database column and add an option in the ACP to display the topic subject in each reply in that topic..... Does that sound good?

Adding it back would only need a one-line edit, so you could either do it manually or give a few clicks to install it as an extension.

For me it´s god to have the topic-title in each post. When i go through my forum i open "unread posts" an from there open each post in a new tab. And when you go then to one of these tabs it´s really helpful that you have the topictitle above each post...

Octopus, you just need the link functionality, not the text there. You can do the same thing you are asying by clicking this little icon =>