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I've begun to think that titles like this:

Custom Annotations to Validate End Date Doesn't Come Before Start Date Using ASP.NET MVC 4 C Sharp

are the same thing as

Custom Annotations to Validate End Date Doesn't Come Before Start Date ASP.NET MVC 4 C Sharp

More and more I feel justified not only to edit those titles, but, in the case of very low-rep users, to add a canned comment:

I have edited your title. Please see, "Should questions include “tags” in their titles?", where the consensus is "no, they should not".

Is anyone else feeling like I am?

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  • Just don't overdo it ;) Your own title here would look Using in the if someone would strip tags from it.
    – Mołot
    Dec 12, 2013 at 14:18

2 Answers 2

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There is a more recent discussion raised by Jaydles regarding the readability of titles than the one that you linked, which can be found here:

Titles should be stand-alone summaries of questions *without* depending on tags

Basically, provided your title makes sense as a question, having the tag in the title isn't really an issue. The issues arise when the tag is forced into the title like in one of the following examples;

ASP.NET: Custom Annotations to validate end date...

or

Custom Annotations in bla bla bla C# .NET 4

As long as your question title makes sense and reads in a natural manner, you should be fine with the tags in the question title. This is the same conclusion that the question you linked reaches as well.

Finally, this agrees with the feelings of one of the founders, Jeff;

Tags in your titles are fine as long as you've not forced them in. If you have forced them in, expect your question to get edited so that it conforms to the generally accepted guidelines on how titles should read.

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  • I am beginning to feel that some cases of "Using" are forcing the tags into the titles. "... Using ASP.NET MVC 4 C Sharp"
    – John Saunders
    Dec 12, 2013 at 13:09
  • "How can I validate that the end date doesn't occur before the start date in C#?" would be a better title, if I have understood the meaning of your current title (I'm not a developer), however it's worth noting that "c#" will likely appear in the page title anyway because of the tagging system.
    – Flyk
    Dec 12, 2013 at 13:11
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I'd edit the title too, rarely do I feel the need to include a tag in my titles.

I also disagree with Titles should be stand-alone summaries of questions *without* depending on tags, a tag should only be included in a title when it's hard or not possible to form a coherent title without doing so.

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  • 2
    Forcing a tag out of a title just to stick to your principles is just as bad as forcing a tag into the title IMO - if the question title reads fine and makes sense without a title then go for it, likewise, if a question title reads fine with a tag in it, leave it alone! Due to Stack Exchange's "unique question title" requirement, you can't ask 30 questions all called "How do I validate a string?" without specifying the programming language (and thus, one of the tags) in the title.
    – Flyk
    Dec 12, 2013 at 13:30
  • @Flyk I wouldn't call that specific example a good title, either there's a more specific question to be asked (how can I validate if X is an Y) or it's too broad (how can I do validation). A few examples of my own questions where the title wouldn't make sense when avoiding tags: "Why do I get a jQuery error when using html5shiv?" and "Why won't Visual Studio break on this unhandled exception?"
    – Stijn
    Dec 12, 2013 at 13:35
  • yeah - I'm not a developer, it was the simplest thing I could think of, you get what I mean though obviously by your response!
    – Flyk
    Dec 12, 2013 at 13:36
  • @Flyk I do get what you mean, perhaps I'm not able to express myself how I want here :) Your comment to your own answer is a better example, in that case I would not edit the tag out of the title.
    – Stijn
    Dec 12, 2013 at 13:37

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