Repeating topic title in each post..

[Frug]

Why was it initially there?

Can we analyze the pros (if there are any) and cons?

This is the way to arrive at a decision. Analysing pros/cons instead of jumping to conclusions or pushing personal opinions.

Logically, semantically, each post has a title, and this makes structural sense to me. I see that as a reason to keep it, although I also see why people are confused by it and find it unnecessary. In 10 years I don't think I've ever changed a subject while replying. The pro for removing it is that it simplifies the posting display (and the db if each post no longer requires a title).

A con is that it's dev time spent, for sure. suddenly posts lack titles, i'm assuming the db structure changes. Another one is that it's a feature people may be using in their workflows. It's conceivable that someone uses phpbb in a way that uses topic titles for organization. If a title changes in a discussion to something other than "Re:" you could watch for that, maybe.

There's no SEO benefit to be had from it, not when repeating the same thing "over and over" in each posts title.

There may be SEO benefit from the structure of each post containing a title, along with the poster and date. Semantically it means that a post is a self contained unit, and you have no way of knowing how crawlers use this information.

[mrgtb]

I see your point on semantic structure as it appears to use an H3 tag in every post (google like that, good H tag structure used). However, the same title on the page uses an H2 tag ( so you have same title displayed in H2 and H3 tags). While I can see the sense keeping the H3 tag in posts for semantic reasons - why not pull Post ID text there instead and make it the post anchor, remove the other one displayed before By: Arthur.

Then at least you solve the renaming issue when moving posts to a new thread name (as you don't need change post id title displayed). Plus the length of each post title using something like "Post ID: 2122728" wouldn't suffer from the title cut off problem. And each posts would display a different unique title for better seo. As it stands now you have a H2 and H3 repeating same thing over and over.

[Frug]

However, the same title on the page uses an H2 tag ( so you have same title displayed in H2 and H3 tags).

That's a decent point. It is distracting to readers seeing it twice (in my opinion) although I doubt a bot/crawler will get offended to see sub header titled the same as a header.

I would point out that it's easy to remove from your template, or to make your template link to the post ID with any text you want... although you are still left with the subject field in the reply form, which would be mysteriously changing a value nobody sees.

edit: actually now I'm considering removing this from my own forum... hmm..

[mrgtb]

Actually I don't mind the idea of keeping that H2 page thread title, and H3 post title in place ( didn't realize it used an H3 tag at first). It is good semantic structure that google likes to see on a page (h1, h2, h3). Just don't repeat the same thing though and try and make each H3 post tag display a different title from each other - and not same as what's already displayed in the H2 tag. And give some thought about when you moderate a thread and move posts to a new thread title created (don't have it so you need edit titles in each post moved to it) like you do now the way it is.

It doesn't look right when you start a new thread called: "phpBB 3.1 beta 5 released", and all post moved to it from another thread read: "Re: Hello my name is Lulu".

[Louis7777]

"Re: Hello my name is Lulu".

Why would anyone with self respect call himself that way? O_o

[Dragosvr92]

"Re: Hello my name is Lulu".

Why would anyone with self respect call himself that way? O_o

Maybe they are silly rednecks or their parents were. It was just an example of a funny name. think we should stay on topic for now

[Jessica.]

-1

I'd like to keep it. What if I want to link to a certain post in a topic?

[NeilUK]

+1 to remove
Topic title repeating over and over again is useless

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

[Dragosvr92]

-1

I'd like to keep it. What if I want to link to a certain post in a topic?

Hello Jessica, in my main post i said "They have instead the number of the post to link to. " The number has the post link on it.

Im attaching two images of the topic layout from IPBoard and vBulletin.
The post anchor is added on the post count on the right side. Still saying no?

[DavidIQ]

One reason it's there is for when you merge two topics. Helps to track where the posts came from.