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There have been a lot of rebus puzzles that have come up over the past 1-2 weeks. All of them have titles such as '10 one-liners', 'Another rebus', 'My 3rd rebus' and so on, which mention nothing but the fact that they are rebus puzzles.

Should these titles be edited (atleast after they are answered) to include some uniqueness to each question, when viewed all together?

For example, someone who browses through the tag 'rebus' should have some idea as to which questions are good ones, instead of going through the entire list. One could edit titles such as:

"Another rebus" -> "Another rebus (ALL world = Small world after all)"

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    $\begingroup$ Informative titles as a whole have always been something of a problem. Until we have clear guidance on how to make good titles, please, please edit titles to be clearer if you see a good way. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Feb 16, 2015 at 23:05
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    $\begingroup$ I would not include the answer into the title, as this spoils the puzzle for all future readers. Perhaps something like: The word "Rebus:" followed by some words / subwords showing up in the puzzle. $\endgroup$
    – Gamow
    Feb 17, 2015 at 10:56
  • $\begingroup$ The problem then is that the puzzle solver will know that the title isn't the correct answer, which helps them narrow down other possible answers. Perhaps it would be okay to give them all "Rebus puzzle" titles with a number attributed to them? I know that on chess websites, the puzzles are numbered, as in "Puzzle #23415", for identification. (I suppose the solvers are then tasked with bookmarking or saving the number for finding it in the future.) $\endgroup$
    – Bulldogg6404
    Feb 21, 2015 at 7:54
  • $\begingroup$ @Bulldog Titles on Stack Exchange need to be clear and informative about the contents of the question. That's partially why this is an issue. Try browsing Puzzling looking at nothing but titles, then try browsing RPG.SE looking at nothing but titles. Or, alternately, just look in the hot network questions list. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Feb 21, 2015 at 19:48
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    $\begingroup$ What can we do about puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/9458/rebus-overload ? $\endgroup$
    – Yamikuronue
    Feb 23, 2015 at 0:34

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I agree that titles need to be more informative, but one reason Puzzling SE has such bad titles is that its hard to come up with informative titles. For example,

HEAD
HEELS

is Head over Heels, but how do you describe that? Inherently, the titles will give a hint by showing users what is or is not part of the answer.

To me, a suitable title would be something like

Rebus: Head, Heels

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    $\begingroup$ This still isn't that good? It is good, simply because it can't be any better. Anyone seeing the title can say whether (a) he has seen it before, and knows the answer. Seeing the number of page views shows (b) how much time people spent solving it. The votes show (c) how much people liked it. Hovering the cursor over the title will (d) show the entire question, since it's pretty short. What more do you want to know while browsing the list? $\endgroup$
    – ghosts_in_the_code
    Feb 23, 2015 at 9:52
  • $\begingroup$ @ghosts_in_the_code True $\endgroup$
    – QuyNguyen2013
    Feb 23, 2015 at 12:38
  • $\begingroup$ @ghosts_in_the_code "It is good, simply because it can't be any better" That's a fallacy $\endgroup$
    – Devon Parsons
    Feb 25, 2015 at 13:27
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    $\begingroup$ @DevonParsons You could post your own answer, if you have any better suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – ghosts_in_the_code
    Feb 26, 2015 at 5:41

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