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I don't exactly know why this is the case anyway, but I have quite often seen new questions with the above title ('What's your Ubuntu question? Be specific') as the person asking the question cannot be bothered to add one (or didn't notice). This very annoying as it makes it more difficult for other people to find it if they need it. The recent example that sparked this is here. There is another here - I can't find other examples, presumably as the community here is wary enough to spot em and edit it in for the OP.

Could a thing be added that if the title is still empty, or contains What's your Ubuntu question? Be specific, it then flags it up the OP (a similar method to this:)

with a message vaguely like:

You have not included a title. Please include a specific title so it makes it easier for users of this site to find it, including some that could actually answer it.

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  • 17
    I think it might actually be a bug that you can get away with no title in the first place..
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 0:52
  • 1
    @Seth I don't think you can. I think these people are actually taking the trouble to copy it out, letter by letter.
    – terdon
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 9:46
  • What if it does contain "What's your Ubuntu question" or "What's your Ubuntu questio" or "What's your Ubuntu questi"... well, you get the point.
    – tigerjack
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 10:20
  • 1
    @Seth this is a bug... meta.stackexchange.com/q/255991/252153
    – Tim
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 18:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You underestimate the industriousness of our users. There is actually a warning shown:

warning popup shown when posting a question with no title

I just got the popup shown above when trying to post a question with no title. I simply never clicked on the title field. As soon as I attempted to post my question, the title was automatically made blank and this warning appeared.

So, it looks like we actually have people who take the time to copy out the filler text and write it into the title field. Full points for effort, at least.

Either that, or there is a strange non-reproducible bug that only affects a small subset of our user base. Personally, I think the first option is more likely.

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  • Weird, I must have seen loads of times, copied exactly... true though, should of checked.
    – Wilf
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 12:04
  • 6
    Cases where filler text comes through in the field may be related to Javascript support failing in the browser / Javascript being disabled?
    – thomasrutter
    Commented May 3, 2015 at 11:18
  • 1
    @thomasrutter I don't think so. I just tried with javascript disabled and there was no filler text in the question's title. Just an empty text field.
    – terdon
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 9:52
  • Could some people have an app to autofill the filler...?
    – Tim
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 15:46
  • Also I've noticed this happening only lately: my bet is this is due to the recent site updates.
    – kos
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 18:11
  • @kos no, it's far, far older than that.
    – terdon
    Commented May 10, 2015 at 22:50
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Reported on Meta.SE, it is a network wide bug... I found 10+ posts across the network with similar titles.

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