Should question titles begin with "How to"? [duplicate]

Question

I wonder whether questions should start with How to or not.

For example below is the name of my last recent question. It starts with How to which is more easy to read in my opinion.

How to find out whether a triangle mesh is concave or not?

Though the How to phrase doesn't add any information to the title. Since this is a question and answer community, it's already known that the title references to a question. Therefore the title below would have been enough.

Find out whether a triangle mesh is concave or not

Is there a guide line or preferred style in our community?

Answer 1

I think this is another case where it's important not to have a site policy. Some titles are good with a how to:

How to delete every third element from a list?

(which is not great) or

How do I augment a zygomorphism-preseving endofunctor?

(which is better) but sometimes it makes more sense to miss it out:

Finding the maximal coherent subtree

(which is clear and consise).

If you have a rule about this, people waste lots of time applying it needlessly.

Rephrasing titles is important if they're unclear, badly worded or way too long. Otherwise it's not that important. Usually the body of the question is where most work needs to be done.

Summary:

It's good to write clear, consise, unwordy titles, but it's bad to have a policy that they're required.

Answer 2

Here are the guidelines to writing a good title: How do I write a good title?

From the accepted answer: (irony, as pointed out by aditya but still):

4) Don't start with "How do I..."

Writing in that style ensures that you title will fail criteria 1-3^*, and get less attention than it deserves. This is a question site, and people will understand your titles are questions.

_{*Make the title stand out, keep it short, lead with the most important words.}

Note that these guidelines are not 100% strict; starting with how to or similar is not forbidden.